JPS62222932A - Aligning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily align a holding device body with the center position of an article by removing supporting a rotary ball body on a frame body and making said ball body support a receiving face which is provided on said holding device body being opposite to said ball body position, in a device for aligning articles which are piled in multiple stages for each face unit. CONSTITUTION:When a device is applied to a holding mechanism 7 for holding an article on the topmost stage of articles piled in stages on the pallet 50 of a face unit picking device, ball seats 101 are firmly installed on four corners of a traveling bogie 6 for holding the holding mechanism 7, and a rotary ball body 102 a part of which is projected out of a top surface is provided on each of the ball seats 101. On the other hand, a flat receiving face 103 which is brought into contact with the rotary ball body 102 is provided on each part opposite to the ball seat 101, of a holding mechanism body 8. Thereby, when holding an article with pressing boards 32, 33 by operating moving cylinders 28, 29, a holding mechanism body 8 is freely moved on the top faces of the rotary ball bodies 12 on a traveling bogie, to be aligned with the center position of an article.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an article alignment device, and is particularly suitable for aligning articles stacked in multiple stages on a surface-by-plane basis. It can be used for surface unit gripping devices, etc.

[Prior Art] As a prior art related to a surface unit gripping device for an article equipped with an alignment device, there is known a method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 77123/1983. Further, as a technique related to an article positioning device, the technique described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-29230 is known.

To explain the prior art described in the above publication, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-77123 discloses that ball seats are fixed upwardly at each of the four corners of the upper surface of a traveling bogie, and a portion of the ball seats are attached to the top of the ball seats. A rotatable rotating sphere protruding from the upper surface is fitted into the four corners of the bottom of the gripping device body placed on the traveling carriage, and the center is deep, the periphery is shallow, and each A surface unit gripping device for an article is described which includes an alignment device formed by fixing an inverted dish-shaped concave body having a conical concave portion so that the center portion and the apex of the rotating sphere coincide.

In addition, Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-29230 describes a floating pallet supported on a fixed frame so as to be able to move freely on a plane, and articles placed on the floating pallet with some degree of freedom to be moved together with the floating pallet. A positioning device is described.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the above-mentioned conventional technology had the following problems.

That is, the alignment device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-77123 has a structure in which an object gripped by a rotating sphere and an inverted dish-shaped concave object is aligned in a plane-by-plane manner. If the deviation between the position and the position of the gripping device body was large, alignment could not be achieved. However, in order to widen the alignment range, it is necessary to increase the size of the inverted dish-shaped concave body, and as a result, the difference in concave depth between the center and the periphery of the concave body becomes large. If an alignment device tries to grip an object with a large deviation, the gripping device body will not be able to maintain its horizontal position and the object cannot be gripped, so even if the concave body is made larger per unit, alignment will not be possible if the deviation is large. Ta.

Furthermore, the positioning device described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-29230 is capable of aligning articles on a floating pallet; I couldn't be bothered. When gripping and aligning the topmost article surface by surface, the objects in the second and subsequent tiers from the top and the floating pallet do not move, and only the topmost article slides on the second tier from the top. Because of this, the items in the second and subsequent tiers from the top would collapse, and alignment could not be achieved.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an alignment device that can align articles stacked in multiple stages on a surface-by-plane basis.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The alignment device according to the present invention has a ball seat fixed to a frame, a rotating sphere arranged on the ball seat so that a part thereof projects from the upper surface, ] A flat receiving surface is provided on the gripping device body of the article placed on the frame body opposite to the position of the rotating sphere, so that the gripping device body can be centered at the center position of the article. This is what I did.

[Embodiment] FIGS. 1 to 4 show an embodiment of a surface unit picking device to which the present invention is applied.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a main frame which is a long rectangular frame and is fixed to the floor, and two table lifters 2.3 are mounted in parallel in the longitudinal direction on the main frame. Two parallel running rails 4 running in the longitudinal direction are further disposed above the main frame 1 and supported by vertical support columns 5, and the above running rails 4 are used as a frame in the present invention. A running trolley 6 is mounted so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction, and with the above configuration, the running trolley 6 can be positioned directly above any of the table lifters 2.3.

The gripping mechanism 7 as a gripping device in the present invention to which the present invention is applied is built into a traveling carriage 6, and the four corners of the gripping mechanism main body 8 as a single gripping device body in the present invention are attached at the rear. Traveling trolley 6 with the structure described in detail
It is supported above.

The gripping mechanism main body 8 includes a cross-shaped guide tube 20 for left and right directions.
Slide posts 24, 25, 26, 27 are slidably attached to the guide cylinders 21, 21, and 22, 23 for the longitudinal direction, and the slide post moving cylinders 28, 29 are aligned on the guide cylinders 20, 21, 22, 23. .30.31 is attached, and each slide post moving cylinder has its telescopic rod end connected to the upper part of the slide post, and its base end supported by the cross connection part of the guide cylinder, and each slide post moving cylinder 24.25
．． 26. At the F section of 27, box pressing plates 32, 33, 34, and 35 in the left and right directions and front and back directions of a constant height extending in the direction perpendicular to the sliding direction are attached, and both ends of each suppression plate are attached. is constructed by regularly providing irregularities (lattice) as shown in FIG. 4 so that it can smoothly intersect with both ends of adjacent pressing plates.

In addition, in the figure (Figures 1 to 2), 36.37 is a rack for synchronizing the movement of the left and right pressing plates 32,33;
8 is a pinion for the same purpose. Further, the movements of the front and back pressing plates 34 and 35 are also synchronized by a similar mechanism.

Note that the gripping mechanism 7 only needs to be composed of two pairs of box pressing devices facing each other in the front and back and left and right directions, and is not limited to the embodiment. Further, 42 is a photo switch, and 43 is a limit switch.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the piping to the slide post moving cylinders 28, 29, 30, and 31 for operating the gripping mechanism 7. As is clear from this figure, two types of gripping pressure can be set. In addition to pressure reducing valves 61 and 62, a switching valve 63 is also provided. Further, a set of cylinders 28 and 29 is provided, and a switching valve 64 is provided for operating these cylinders in the left and right directions, and two pressure switches 65 and 66 are provided for confirming completion of suppression.

Similarly, a set of cylinders 30, 31 is provided with a switching valve 67 and pressure switches 68, 69 for operating these cylinders in the longitudinal direction. The above three switching valves 63
．． 64.67 is controlled by a control device such as a computer, and is controlled by a strong gripping pressure (for example, the set pressure of the pressure reducing valve 61 is 5.0 kg/crn', depending on the weight of the object gripped by the gripping mechanism 7). A gripping pressure of approximately 180 kg) and a weak gripping pressure (for example, a gripping pressure of approximately 90 kgcy when the set pressure of the pressure reducing valve 62 is 2.5 kg/crn') can be selected. That is, the control device stores in advance the gripping pressure (high/low) for each type of gripped product, and controls the switching valve 63 according to the target article to be gripped.

Further, the above control device is for cylinders 28, 29, 30, 31.
When the pressure switch 65, 66, 68, 69 is operated in the gripping direction and the pressing force rises to a preset pressure, the pressure switch 65, 66, 68, 69 is activated, and the detection signal controls the cylinder so that it operates in the opening direction. , cylinders 28 and 29 in the left and right direction are one set, and cylinder 3 in the front and rear direction
0.31 as one set, and each set can be controlled separately or simultaneously.

The support structure of the gripping mechanism main body 8 with respect to the traveling carriage 6 is as follows. That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, ball seats 101 are fixed to the four corners of the traveling carriage 6. A rotating sphere 102 is disposed on the ball seat 101 and partially protrudes from the top surface. On the other hand, a rotating sphere 1 is provided in a portion of the gripping mechanism main body 8 that faces the ball seat 101.
A flat receiving surface 103 that comes into contact with 02 is provided. As a result, the gripping mechanism main body 8 can move from each moving cylinder 28 to
31, when the pressing plates 32 to 35 attached to the slide posts 24 to 27 grip an article, they freely move on the upper surface of the rotating sphere 102 on the side of the traveling cart 6,
It will be possible to center the article in the center position.

Moreover, on each of the four sides surrounding the gripping mechanism main body 8 of the traveling trolley 6, gripping mechanism main body pressing devices 104, 105, 106.
107 is arranged and teed. Gripping mechanism main body suppression device 104
~107 is a suppression cylinder 108 as shown in FIG.
, a pressing arm 109 operated by a pressing cylinder 108, and a connecting shaft 110. The main body pressing devices 104 to 10 have the function of aligning the gripping mechanism main body 8 to the center position of the traveling carriage 6.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the alignment device of the present invention is applied to the above-mentioned surface unit picking device will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6(A) to 6(C).
This will be explained with reference to a schematic diagram of the operation mode.

When implementing the present invention, first, one of the table lifters 2
An empty pallet 50 is placed on top of the table lifter 3, and a pallet 51 containing a certain product type is placed on the other table lifter 3. The traveling cart 6 moves from the position shown in FIG. 2 to directly above the table lifter 3, and then the table lifter 3 rises. The top surface of the target article on the table lifter 3 is the photoswitch 42
After blocking the optical axis of the table lifter 3, the table lifter 3 stops rising after a certain period of time has elapsed. This certain period of time is controlled by the control device so that it is the time required for the target object to rise by one stage plus α. Therefore, the position where one stage of the target article can be gripped in a wide area over the entire side surface, that is, the topmost stage of the target article is brought into the space surrounded by the left-right and front-back pressing plates 32 to 35 of the gripping mechanism main body 8. It will be. FIG. 6(A) is a schematic diagram showing the positional relationship between the traveling cart 6, the gripping mechanism main body 8, and the article in this state. Discard the slanted examples.

Next, by operating the suppression plates 32 to 35 based on the drive of the cylinders 28 to 31 of the gripping mechanism main body 8, the four surfaces of the target article on the uppermost stage are pressed and gripped. At this time, the rotating sphere 102 disposed on the ball receiving seat 101 and the flat receiving surface 103
Due to the existence of the gripping mechanism body 8, as described above, the gripping mechanism main body 8 moves in a self-centering manner so that its center coincides with the center of the article and its posture is obliquely along the article. The state shown in FIG. 6 (B) is reached.

In this case, the two pairs of box pressing devices first shift the target article in the horizontal direction ( When the pressing force is increased to the preset pressure, the pressure switches 65 and 66 are activated, and the cylinders 28 and 29 are moved in the direction to release the suppression (indicated by
direction), and the cylinders 2B and 29 are opened
After checking, operate the cylinders 30 and 31 in the front-back direction (in the direction of
When the other pressure switches 68 and 69 are activated, the cylinders 28 and 29 in the left and right directions are activated again while maintaining the pressing force in the front and rear directions to perform pressing and gripping. When it is confirmed by the pressure switches 65 and 66 that the pressing force has increased to the preset pressure, the table lifter 3 is slightly lowered while maintaining the same pressing force.

Next, by the above-mentioned gripping operation of the gripping mechanism main body 8, in order to eliminate the state shown in FIG. The pressing cylinders 108 of the pressing devices 104 to 107 are driven to align the gripping mechanism main body 8 to the center position of the traveling carriage 6 as shown in FIG. 6(C). Thereafter, the traveling cart 6 moves from the table lifter 3 to directly above the table lifter 2. In addition, the above-mentioned gripping mechanism main body pressing devices 104 to 10
The operation of 7 and the movement of the traveling carriage 6 may be performed at the same time.

When the traveling cart 6 moves to just above the table lifter 2,
The table lifter 2 is waiting at a position slightly lower than the bottom level of the gripped target article. Next, the table lifter 2 is driven to raise the pallet 50, and the upper surface of the pallet 50 is brought into contact with the t° surface of the article held by the gripping mechanism 7. When the table lifter 2 further rises and lifts the gripping mechanism 7 loaded on the traveling trolley 6, the limit switch 43 is activated and the table lifter 2 stops rising.
On the other hand, the gripping mechanism 7 releases its grip on the target article. Thereafter, the table lifter 2 starts descending, and stops after descending to a position where a space corresponding to one stage of the target article plus β is opened according to a timer. Next, the load on the table lifter 3 is replaced with a different type of load and the same operation is repeated to stack different types of load one by one on the pallet 50 on the table lifter 2.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention provides a frame body in which a ball seat is fixed to a frame body, a rotating sphere is disposed on the ball seat so that a part thereof protrudes from the upper surface, and A flat receiving surface is provided on the main body of the gripping device for an article to be placed on the body, facing the position of the rotating sphere, so that the main body of the gripping device can be centered on the center position of the article. be.

Therefore, when the gripping device main body tries to grip an article, the gripping device main body freely moves through the slide of the flat receiving surface with respect to the rotating sphere provided in the ball receiving seat of the frame body.
The object is centered at the center of the object. This results in
It becomes possible to reliably align articles stacked in multiple stages on a per-plane basis.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a surface unit picking device as an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view of the main parts of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the crossed state of the suppression plates, FIG. 5 is a fluid circuit diagram for operating the gripping mechanism, and FIG. Figures (A) to (C) are schematic diagrams showing the operating mode of the present invention, and Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the operating order of the pressing plate. 6... Traveling trolley (frame body), 7... Gripping mechanism (gripping device), 8... Gripping mechanism body (gripping device body), 20~
23... Guide tube, 24-27... Slide boss, 28-31... Slide boss moving cylinder, 32-
35...Box pressing plate, 101...Ball catch, 102...
...Rotating sphere, 103...Flat receiving surface, 104-10
7... Gripping mechanism main body suppression device (gripping device main body suppression device), 108... Suppression cylinder, 109... Pressing arm, 110... Connection shaft.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A ball seat is fixed to the frame, a rotating sphere is arranged on the ball seat so that a part of the ball protrudes from the top surface, and the main body of the gripping device for the article placed on the frame is A centering device characterized in that a flat receiving surface is provided opposite to the rotating sphere position so that the gripping device main body can be centered at the center position of the article. (2) The alignment device according to claim 1, wherein a gripping device body pressing device for aligning the gripping device body to the center position of the frame body is provided on the frame body. (3) 2 in which the gripping device main body faces each other in the front and back and left and right sides.
Claim 1 comprising a pair of box pressing devices.
The alignment device according to item 1 or 2. (4) The alignment device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the frame is a traveling truck.