JPS62220404A - Automatic loader - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an automatic loading device that automatically loads trays and the like containing food into containers.

More specifically, the present invention relates to an automatic 81a device for loading a large number of trays of the same size onto a container such as a return basket to be carried into a supermarket or the like.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in this type of work, meat, seafood, vegetables, side dishes, etc., were manually wrapped in plastic wrap, etc., and then manually loaded into containers.

However, as supermarkets have become larger and become chains, tray packaging has become more automated.
Sorting packaged foods, etc. into containers by destination 411
There was little automation in the loading process. As a countermeasure against this problem, a method has been proposed in which a tray or the like sent by a conveyor or the like is pushed by a pusher or the like and thrown into a container.

[Problems with the prior art] However, with this method, accurate loading is difficult, and the trays may be turned upside down, the trays may be misaligned, and the contents may lose their shape due to the impact when they fall. Although there is a demand for an automatic loading device that solves these problems, it has not yet been realized.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been proposed to solve these problems, and there is no inversion of trays or disordered arrangement when loading, and there is less collision when the tray is dropped. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an automatic Mia device such as a tray that allows accurate loading.

That is, the gist of the present invention is A) Fixed conveyor.

B) A movable conveyor that is located below the fixed conveyor and in a position that is almost in contact with the conveyor, and whose tip is located forward of the tip of the fixed conveyor in the direction of movement, and which is itself movable in the front and rear direction; C) A movable conveyor D) A first stopper movable in the vertical direction arranged at the leading end in the traveling direction on the fixed conveyor; E) A first stopper on the fixed conveyor that can change the angle with respect to the horizontal plane A second stopper that is movable in the L downward direction and is disposed at a predetermined distance from the stopper in the direction opposite to the traveling direction; and (G) an inclination guide that regulates the angle of the input conveyor with respect to the horizontal plane and the inclination start position.

As the conveyor used in the present invention, a conveyor such as a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor in which an object placed on the conveyor moves in a predetermined direction by the drive of the conveyor is used, and a packet type conveyor or the like is not preferred.

The present invention will be explained below using the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the main parts of the apparatus of the present invention, and the driving part and the like are omitted. FIGS. 2 to 4 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the apparatus of the present invention, sequentially showing the operating states of the loading apparatus. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of the main parts of the apparatus shown in the embodiment viewed from above.

In the present invention, the fixed conveyor (1) is in a fixed position, and when in operation, the objects on the fixed conveyor are moved at a constant speed. Note that the surface of the fixed conveyor (1) is preferably smooth because the objects on the conveyor 7 are gathered to the center by the later-described width adjustment device. In Figures 1 to 4, the fixed conveyor (1) and the movable conveyor (2) are examples in which normal belt conveyors are used, and the feeding conveyor (3) is an example in which a belt conveyor having many string-like belts is used. .

The movable conveyor (2) is also similar to the fixed conveyor (1), but the movable conveyor (2) is movable back and forth along the traveling direction of the movable conveyor. The width of this movement should be larger than the width of the container 113 (9) (width in the moving direction of the moving conveyor), and when designing the device, the limit of the movement width may be set by taking into consideration the type of container expected, etc.
The movement width may be set in accordance with the dimensions of the container employed at that time. This moving conveyor (2) receives a predetermined number of trays, etc. lined up from the fixed conveyor (1) and transports them to the top of the container to be thrown into the container (9) via the charging conveyor (3). Therefore, it is located below the fixed conveyor (1) so as to be in contact with the fixed conveyor, and furthermore, the tip of the moving conveyor (2) before moving is located in front of the tip of the fixed conveyor (1) in the traveling direction. need to be. Mobile conveyor (2)
may be constantly rotating during operation, but it must be stopped when the moving conveyor (2) is moving forward, and when it returns to its original position (the position of the moving conveyor in Figure 2) It is preferable that the device rotates so as to carry objects horizontally. For this purpose, it is preferable to have a control mechanism that synchronizes the end and stop of the forward movement of the moving conveyor with the start of rotation of the moving conveyor, and ends the rotation when the moving conveyor returns to its initial position. . The moving speed of the moving conveyor is set to be the same as the rotational speed of the fixed conveyor (1). This makes it possible to maintain the alignment of the trays and the like arranged on the fixed conveyor and put them into the container.

The input conveyor (3) is for picking up items on the moving conveyor (2) and throwing them into the container while keeping the impact of falling into the container small. The structure is such that it can rotate up to a predetermined angle in the F direction around this connection. This predetermined angle is also related to the length of the input conveyor (3), but it suffices if the tip of the input conveyor reaches the vicinity of the position in the container where the tray etc. is placed and does not go lower than that. If trays, etc. are stacked in one or several levels in the container, it may be set at a fixed angle, but if they are stacked in multiple levels, the angle may be changed manually or automatically at each position one after another. good. Also, the input conveyor (
When 3) is a belt conveyor, it is preferable that the material of the belt has good slippage, and examples of such materials include those having polytetrafluoroethylene in at least the surface layer.

The first stopper (4) and the second stopper (5) are for stopping the objects flowing on the rotating fixed conveyor (1) on that plane as necessary, and are movable up and down. When the stopper goes down, it is located near the top of the fixed conveyor (1) and blocks the passage of trays, and when it goes up, it allows trays, etc. to pass freely under it. ing.

The width adjustment device (6) is for aligning the trays etc. accumulated between the first stopper (4) and the second stopper (5) toward the center, and is fixed between the first stopper and the second stopper. It extends along both sides of the conveyor (1) and is movable in parallel toward the center of the fixed conveyor (1).

In other words, when feeding trays in multiple rows, if they are placed close to each other, they will collide and the arrangement will be disrupted, so they are sent to the fixed conveyor (1) a little apart from each other, but if they are fed into containers in this state, the intervals will be too large. remains open, resulting in a decrease in 4'tJi efficiency. This width adjusting device is provided to solve this problem.

The movement of these stoppers and width adjusting devices may be driven by pneumatic pressure, hydraulic pressure, or the like.

An inclined guide (7) is provided below the moving conveyor (2) to the input conveyor (3). This inclined guide is to prevent the tip of the input conveyor from hitting the edge (18) of the container during movement. For a while, the tip of the input conveyor is supported at a higher position than the top of this edge, but after the tip crosses this edge, the input conveyor is removed from the inclined guide and the tip is supported at a predetermined height inside the container. This is to make sure that it will come down.

In order to arrange a plurality of rows of trays, etc., an appropriate device (not shown) for distributing trays, etc. may be provided on the entry side of the fixed conveyor (1).

[Effect] The operation of the device of the present invention will be explained below.

At first, the first stopper (4) is lowered, and trays, etc., are sent one after another from the conveyor (8) in multiple rows (usually items of the same size are sent each time).
is stopped by the bait at the first stopper on the fixed conveyor (1). When a predetermined number of trays, etc. have accumulated, the second stopper (5) comes down and blocks the trays, etc. that are fed in thereafter (Fig. 2). Next, the width adjusting device (6) is driven to align the trays, etc. in the center of the fixed conveyor, and then the first stopper rises and at the same time, the moving conveyor (2) starts moving, and the trays, etc. are placed on the moving conveyor. send out.

When a predetermined number of trays, etc. are fed out, the second stopper goes up and the first stopper goes down. On the other hand, there is a moving conveyor that is loading trays one after another and an official conveyor connected to it (
3) moves forward to a predetermined position (Fig. 3). The moving speed of the moving conveyor at this time is preferably the same as the rotational speed of the fixed conveyor. During the movement, the tip of the input conveyor goes over the edge of the container (18) and when the input conveyor is no longer supported by the inclined guide, the tip of the input conveyor lowers to a predetermined position close to the height at which trays, etc. should be loaded. come. This makes it possible to prevent the tip of the input conveyor from hitting the edge of the container and to avoid excessively applying 1711 to the tray or the like when it falls. When the moving conveyor advances to a predetermined position and stops, the moving conveyor starts operating (rotating the belt, etc.), sends trays, etc. to the loading conveyor, and loads trays, etc. from the farthest position from the fixed conveyor inside the container (9). begins to As the moving conveyor begins to move backwards at the same time as it starts operating, trays, etc. are loaded one after another toward the rear (toward the left in Figure 4), and the trays arranged as a set on the fixed conveyor are kept in their original shape inside the containers. Form one stage. By the time the moving conveyor returns to its initial position, work on the next group has started on the fixed conveyor, so the above operation is repeated.

[Example] The present invention will be explained in more detail below using Examples.

Example! An apparatus having the main parts shown in FIG. 5 was used.

In Figure 5, the fixed conveyor (1) has a total length of 3.2 m.
, a cloth belt with a width of 65 cm is used, and a cloth belt with a total length of 2.4 m and a width of 60 cm is used for the moving conveyor (2). The tip of the moving conveyor is located 15 cm ahead of the tip of the stationary conveyor.The moving conveyor is advanced forward from the above-mentioned position by a drive transmission unit (23) connected to a drive device (22). It is then designed to allow reciprocal movement back to the initial position.

The input conveyor (3) has a width of 60 cm, and 40 polytetrafluoroethylene belts with a total length of 60 cm and a diameter of 5 mm arranged at approximately 1 cm intervals are attached to a rotating shaft (14).
It is stretched between (15).

The first stopper (4) and the second stopper (5) are flat metal plates with a length of 60 cm and a height of 7 cm, and are movable up and down by air cylinders (24) and (25). When the tray is lifted up to a fixed conveyor, the tray will rise to a height that allows it to pass freely under the stopper.

The width adjusting device (6) consists of two metal plates, 80 cm long and 15 cm high, located on both sides of the fixed conveyor, each having a structure in which the rear end thereof is curved outward. These metal plates can be moved to the center on the fixed conveyor belt by air cylinders (26), (26"). The guide (27) is for moving the width adjustment device (6) in parallel. It crosses over the fixed conveyor, but its position is high enough not to obstruct the passage of the tray.

The inclined guide (7) is made of metal with a thickness of 1 cm and a length of 20 cm, and has a side surface shape as shown in FIG. 3, and is fixed to the main body of the automatic loading device.

On the left side of the fixed conveyor (1) in FIG. 5, there is installed a conveyor having a distribution device for distributing the advancing positions of the trays into three rows between the fixed conveyors and the fixed conveyor.

Using this device, the length was 63 cm and the width was 42 cm.

A container (9) with an inner surface size of 5 cm in height is placed on the conveyor (
3) on the bottom front valve, lower the first stopper (4), raise the second stopper (5), set the width adjustment device (6) to the expanded state, and set the operating speed of the fixed conveyor (1). 20
The beef is stored in a tray with a length of 20 cm, a width of 13 cm, and a thickness of about 2 cm, wrapped in film. Then, they were sequentially fed into this automatic loading device in three rows.

When the nine trays pass under the second stopper, the second stopper is lowered and the trays arranged in three rows between the first stopper and the second stopper are moved to the air cylinder (26).
, (26'), the width adjustment device (6)
The width of the plates was adjusted so that the distance between the plates was 39 cm, and the trays were aligned.

Next, the first stopper is raised, and at the same time the drive device (22
), the moving conveyor (2) was moved forward at 20 m/min) without operating the moving conveyor belt.

As a result, the nine trays were transferred one after another onto the moving conveyor. When the moving conveyor moved forward to the maximum, the tip of the input conveyor (3) was at a position close to the bottom of the container, 2 cm from the farthest side from the fixed conveyor. Before the moving conveyor started moving, the input conveyor was on almost the same horizontal plane as the moving conveyor, but when the moving conveyor moved forward and the immersive conveyor rode on the slope of the inclined guide, it rotated slightly downward and then came off the inclined guide. Sometimes the support from below was lost, so it rotated downward to a predetermined angle. Note that during this rotation, the input conveyor touches the edge of the container on the conveyor side (18
), so there was no chance that the input conveyor would hit the edge (18). As soon as the moving conveyor stopped, its belt began to rotate at 20 m/min, and at the same time the moving conveyor itself began to move backward at a speed of 20 m/min. As a result, nine trays were arranged in three rows in the container to form one layer. At this time, since the tip of the input conveyor was close to the bottom of the container, there was little fallout during immersion, and the mold surface was not exceeded.

Also, when the nine trays on the fixed conveyor move to the moving conveyor, the '751 stopper comes down, the second stopper goes up, and work on the next set is in progress, and the above-mentioned work is repeated twice. By repeating this process, it took about 20 seconds to load two trays MaL into the container and one container. The container in which the tray group has been stored is moved by a conveyor that moves in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the automatic h1 loading device, and the next empty container is moved to a predetermined position.
Loading of trays was repeated.

[Effect of the invention] The automatic loading device of the present invention has the above configuration,
Since trays and the like can be loaded automatically and at high speed, it can be connected to a large packaging line, and labor costs can be significantly reduced. In addition, it has the excellent feature that trays and the like can be placed in the container in an orderly manner, that it can be loaded efficiently without creating wasted space within the container, and that it will not lose its shape or be damaged during loading.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the main parts of the apparatus of the present invention, and the driving part and the like are omitted. FIGS. 2 to 4 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the apparatus of the present invention, showing the operating states of the loading apparatus in sequence. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of the main parts of the apparatus shown in the embodiment viewed from above. In the figure,

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A) A fixed conveyor; B) A fixed conveyor located below the fixed conveyor at a position substantially in contact with the conveyor, the tip of which is located forward of the tip of the fixed conveyor in the traveling direction, and which itself is A movable conveyor that can move forward and backward; C) An input conveyor that is connected to the forward end of the moving conveyor and whose angle relative to the horizontal plane can be changed; D) A vertically movable conveyor that is placed at the forward end of the fixed conveyor. a first stopper; E) a second stopper that is movable in the vertical direction and is disposed at a predetermined interval in the opposite direction from the first stopper on the fixed conveyor; F) between the first stopper and the second stopper; G) An automatic loading device equipped with a width adjusting device that extends along both sides of the fixed conveyor and is movable in parallel toward the center of the fixed conveyor, and a tilting guide that regulates the angle of the input conveyor with respect to the horizontal plane and the tilt start position. . 2) A control mechanism that synchronizes the end and stop of forward movement of the moving conveyor and the start of rotation of the surface of the moving conveyor, and ends the rotation when the moving conveyor returns to its initial position. Automatic loading device according to scope 1.