JPS6232182Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] This invention relates to a device for rotating a rectangular container containing, for example, milk or fruit juice by 90 degrees during conveyance by a conveyor.

As is well known, recently, beverages such as milk and fruit juice are being stored in rectangular containers made of paper, that is, paper packs, instead of glass bottles. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, this type of rectangular container 1 is sealed by joining the opposing edges of the upper end, and as a result, the sealing portion 2 is linear, so the container 1 as a whole has so-called directionality, and conventionally, generally, a surface parallel to the sealing portion 2 is defined as a front surface 3, and a surface perpendicular to this is defined as a side surface 4. The front side 3 is the so-called face of the product, and usually a suitable design is displayed here, and one side 4 is marked with a predetermined quality indication.

Among these designs and quality indications, except for the manufacturing factory in the manufacturer column, they can be printed on the container 1 in advance because they are determined by the contents to be stored, but the manufacturing factory can also be printed in advance. If this is done, the container 1 can only be used in a specific factory, and if there are many manufacturing factories, the types of containers must be manufactured according to the number of factories.
As a result, there are problems such as an increase in the number of types of containers and the difficulty in managing them.

Therefore, if we leave blank the columns for specific items determined at the time of manufacturing at manufacturing plants, etc., and print those items on container 1 when manufacturing is completed, even if there are many manufacturing plants of the same type of product, container 1 can be printed on each container 1. This would be extremely rational since it could be made common to all factories, but there were technical problems to do so, as described below.

That is, the work of filling a container 1 with contents and sealing the upper end opening as shown in FIG. Because this is carried out automatically while continuously conveying the container, the front surface 3 of the container 1 faces both left and right sides with respect to the traveling direction, and the side surface 4 to be printed is hidden by the preceding container or the following container. As it is, it is not possible to print at the required location on the side surface 4. Therefore, a second conveyor is arranged perpendicular to the preceding conveyor, and the containers 1 that have been sent so that the sealing part 2 is parallel to the traveling direction are transferred to the sealing part by the second conveyor. It is conceivable to feed the sheet so that the side surface 2 faces perpendicular to the running direction, but in this way the side surface 4 to be printed can face both left and right sides of the conveyor, but at least two conveyors are required. Moreover, the conveyance line is bent, which not only requires a large space, but also causes problems such as the need to provide an additional conveyor to change the conveyance direction in relation to related equipment. In addition, after the sealing is completed, the containers are picked up one by one during transportation, and 90
It is conceivable to rotate it, but if this work were to be done manually, it would not only put a huge burden on the workers, but also lead to a rise in labor costs, and if it were done by an appropriate automatic machine, A mechanism is required to synchronize the operation of the automatic machine with the conveyor that conveys the container 1, and to accurately lower the container 1 that has been lifted up and rotated 90 degrees to the desired position, resulting in a complicated and expensive ear machine. A problem arises that requires

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and the purpose is to provide a device that does not require any special power, has a simple configuration, and can rotate a square container by 90 degrees during transportation. be.

Examples of this invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. Reference numeral 10 in these figures indicates a conveyor, and the conveyor 10 is configured to carry a rectangular container 1 having the shape shown in FIG.
The rotating shaft 13 is rotatably supported on the bracket 12 by a pair of upper and lower bearings 14 so as to be perpendicular to the conveyor 10.
Furthermore, a pair of upper and lower rotating bodies, ie, star wheels 15, are attached to the upper end of the rotating shaft 13. As shown in FIG. 2, the star wheel 15 has eight protrusions 16, and each protrusion 16
A right-angled receiving portion 17 having an angle corresponding to the corner of the rectangular container 1 is formed between the receiving portions 17 and 17.
is large enough to rotate across the upper surface of the conveyor, and is configured so that one rectangular container 1 transported by the conveyor 10 is received in each receiving portion 17. Also, a pair of upper and lower star wheels 15
The lower surface of the upper star wheel 15 is provided with the same number of rollers 18 as the receiving portions 17, that is, eight protrusions, and a lever 19 whose tip comes into contact with the roller 18 is approximately parallel to the conveyor 10. arranged in parallel. That is, lever 19
is rotatably attached at its base end to a support part 20 provided on the bracket 12, and a bolt 21 is passed through the base end of the lever 19 from the support part 20, and a bolt 21 is inserted into the tip of the bolt 21. The lever 19 is pressed toward the roller 18 by a compression spring 23 interposed between the fitted washer 22 and the lever 19. These rollers 18
The lever 19, compression spring 23, etc. forcefully rotate the star wheel 15 by a predetermined angle.
and for stopping the lever 19.
When the tip of the star wheel 15 is in contact with one of the rollers 18, the pressing force based on the elastic force of the compression spring 23 is applied to the star wheel 15 via the roller 18.
As a result, the star wheel 15 is forcibly rotated, and as a result of this rotation, if the lever 19 contacts any two rollers 18 as shown in FIG. Since no rotational force acts on
The star wheel 15 is stopped in this state, and in this stopped state, one of the receiving parts 17 is positioned to receive the rectangular container 1 conveyed by the conveyor 10, as shown in FIG. It's getting old.

Further, a guide bar 24 for guiding the rectangular container 1 on the conveyor 10 toward the star wheel 15 is disposed on the upper surface side of the conveyor 10 and closer to the starting end in the running direction than the star wheel 15 . A guide rail 25 for guiding the rectangular container 1 rotated by the star wheel 15 to the center of the conveyor 10 is disposed on the terminal end side in the running direction. In addition, if the end of the guide rail 25 on the left side in the running direction of the guide rail 25 on the terminal end side is extended to the lower side of the star wheel 15 as shown in FIG. By abutting one side of the container 1, the rectangular container 1 can be rotated more reliably.

Next, the operation of the apparatus configured as described above will be explained.

First, the star wheel 15 rotates and stops until the lever 19 comes into contact with any two rollers 18, and in this state, one of the receiving portions 17 has a wall portion approximately parallel to the running direction of the conveyor 10. It is now facing in the perpendicular direction. On the other hand, the rectangular container 1 is conveyed by the conveyor 10 so that its sealing portion 2 is parallel to the traveling direction, in other words, the front surface 3 faces both left and right sides of the conveyor 10. When the rectangular container 1 enters the receiving part 17 of the star wheel 15, the star wheel 15 is pushed by the rectangular container 1 and is moved to the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.
At the same time, the lever 19 is pushed by the roller 18 and comes into contact with only that roller 18. In this state, the side surface 4 facing the running direction of the rectangular container 1 is in contact with one wall of the receiving part 17, but the star wheel 15 is pushed by the rectangular container 1 and rotates further, and as a result, the lever 19 is pushed. When the roller 18 passing through the neutral point (the position where the line perpendicular to the lever 19 at the point of contact between the roller 18 and the lever 19 passes through the axis of the rotating shaft 13), the elastic force of the compression spring 23 is applied to the lever 19 and the roller 1.
8 to rotate the star wheel 15 in the direction of arrow A, so that the star wheel 15 is forcibly rotated, and the other wall of the receiving part 17 touches the front surface 3 of the rectangular container 1. push.
As a result, the rectangular container 1 is conveyed by the conveyor 10 and transferred to the conveyor 1 by the star wheel 15.
The rectangular container 1 is then rotated by 90 degrees as shown in FIG. transported by. Further, the following rectangular containers 1 are sequentially rotated in the same manner as described above, by the star wheel 15 being pushed by the rectangular containers 1 and rotating continuously.

Therefore, according to the above-mentioned apparatus, the rectangular container 1 can be rotated by 90 degrees by the star wheel 15 while being conveyed by the conveyor 10 without using any particular power.

In the above embodiment, the star wheel 15 is placed on the left side of the conveyor 10 to rotate the rectangular container 1 counterclockwise. However, if the star wheel is placed on the right side of the conveyor, the rectangular container 15 is rotated clockwise. Therefore, when returning the rectangular container to its original orientation, it is sufficient to arrange the second star wheel on the right side of the conveyor on the downstream side in the conveyance direction. It goes without saying that this invention can also be used when rotating polygonal containers such as hexagonal or octagonal containers.

As is clear from the above description, according to the rotating device of this invention, a rectangular container is placed on one side of the conveyor for continuous conveyance, and the outer peripheral part is pushed by the rectangular container and moves above the conveyor. A rotating body that rotates on an inner surface parallel to the upper surface of the conveyor is disposed so as to cross the conveyor, a plurality of right-angled receiving portions corresponding to the corners of the rectangular container are formed at equal intervals on the outer periphery of the rotating body, and A plurality of protrusions are provided on the upper or lower surface of the rotary body corresponding to the receiving parts, and a lever for elastically pressing the protrusions toward the rotation center of the rotary body is provided in a direction parallel to the radial direction of the rotary body. Since the container is arranged so that the elastic force acting through the lever and protrusion becomes a rotational force on the rotating body, the rectangular container can be rotated 90 degrees by the rotating body during transportation. Furthermore, since the device of this invention does not require any particular power to rotate the rectangular container, there is no running cost, and the overall structure is simple, making maintenance easy and preventing breakdowns. It is possible to obtain effects such as a reduction in the amount of oxidation and a reduction in cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a rectangular container, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the invention, FIG. 3 is a front view thereof, and FIG. 4 is a side view thereof. 1...Rectangular container, 2...Sealing part, 3...Front,
4... Side, 10... Conveyor, 15... Star wheel, 17... Receiving section, 18... Roller, 1
9...Lever, 23...Compression spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A rotating body that is pushed by the square containers and rotates in a plane parallel to the top surface of the conveyor so that its outer circumference crosses above the conveyor is placed on one side of the conveyor that carries square containers and continuously conveys them. , a plurality of receiving portions having angles corresponding to the corners of the rectangular container are formed at equal intervals on the outer circumference of the rotating body, and a plurality of protrusions are provided on the upper or lower surface of the rotating body at the receiving portions. A correspondingly provided lever that elastically presses the protrusion toward the center of rotation of the rotating body is disposed in a direction parallel to the radial direction of the rotating body, and the lever and the protrusion 1. A device for rotating a square container, characterized in that the elastic force acting on the rotating body is configured to generate a rotational force.