JPS6236935B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention mainly relates to a method of controlling a plurality of supply conveyors for supplying conveyed articles to a main conveyor for automatic sorting, and in particular, a method for controlling a plurality of supply conveyors that supply articles to a main conveyor for automatic sorting. This invention relates to a method for controlling the amount of input.

In general, a main conveyor 1 for automatic sorting has a large number of trays 2 connected in series for loading conveyed items, as shown in FIG. A plurality of supply conveyors 3 serving as conveyed material supply devices are arranged in parallel, and each of the conveyors 3 is connected to the main conveyor 1 at an appropriate angle, such as at right angles or obliquely.
The conveyor 3 has a buffer conveyor 4 for temporarily stopping the articles, and a loader conveyor 5 for acceleration connected to the buffer conveyor 4. And traditionally,
Methods for supplying conveyed objects to the main conveyor 1 by a plurality of conveyors 3 include a method using an allocation method and a method using an empty tray detection method. For example, in two conveyors 3, the allocation method is
This refers to a supply system in which the objects carried by the second conveyor 3 are loaded on odd-numbered trays, and the objects carried by the second conveyor 3 are loaded on even-numbered trays. In such an allocation system, when the amount of conveyance of the first conveyor 3 decreases, empty loads will occur in the odd-numbered trays of the main conveyor 1, and even if there is a large amount of conveyed items on the second conveyor 3, it will be It was uneconomical because it could not be diverted to empty trays.

Next, the empty tray detection method is a method that detects when an empty tray of the main conveyor 1 approaches each conveyor 3 and feeds the conveyed object from the conveyor 3 to the empty tray 2. In this empty tray detection method, empty trays always arrive at the upstream side, so only the upstream conveyor 3 is constantly loaded with conveyed items.
There is a drawback that the chance of feeding objects into the downstream conveyor 3 is extremely reduced, resulting in an imbalance in the conveyance amount of each conveyor 3.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a conveyor for conveying articles, which eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment shown in FIG.
7, 8, and 9 are arranged perpendicular to the main conveyor 1 as follows. If the time taken for the first tray T ₁ to move from the reference point S ₀ to the loading point S ₁ of the conveyor 6 is t ₁ , then
Buffer conveyor 1 of said t ₁ and conveyor 6 of the first row
The time t 1 ' taken by the conveyed object 11, which was held at 0, starts from A ₁ and reaches the point S ₁ , is made equal to the time t ₁ '. That is, _the loader conveyor ₁ of the first row is
2. Set the length and speed appropriately. Next, if the time for the first tray T ₁ to reach from point S ₀ to S ₂ is t ₂ , then at t ₂ the conveyed objects 11 waiting on the buffer conveyor 10 of the second row of conveyors 7 will move from point A 2 to t ₂ .
The time to reach S ₂ is made equal to t ₂ ′. similarly
Travel times t ₃ , t ₄ between S ₀ -S ₃ and S ₀ -S ₄ and A ₃ -S ₃ , A ₄ - on the buffer conveyors 10 of the conveyors 8, 9 in the third and fourth rows, respectively. The transport times t ₃ ′ and t ₄ ′ during S ₄ are set to be equal. That is, t ₂ = t ₂ ′, t ₃ = t ₃ ′, and t ₄ = t ₄ ′. Further, it is assumed that a cam 16 is provided that rotates once each time each tray moves one pitch, and a start signal is output to the buffer conveyor 10 every time the cam 16 rotates once. Furthermore, the order in which the articles arrived at the buffer conveyor 10 of each of the conveyors 6 to 9 is stored. A shift register with four stages and four columns as shown in FIG. 3 is provided. The figure shows that the conveyed objects have arrived at each buffer conveyor 10 in the order of arrival order: first column, second column, third column, and fourth column, and corresponding to the order, the articles are sequentially placed from the bottom of each column. The arrival order is memorized. For example, the third row of buffer conveyor 1
If the conveyance item arrives at the 3rd place in 0, then 3 in the column
It will be memorized in stages. Then, based on the start signal, the conveyed object is first carried out from the buffer conveyor 10 stored in the first stage. Then, the arrival order signal stored for the buffer conveyor 10 disappears. At the same time, the second stage storage signal is shifted to the first stage. Similarly, the third stage is shifted to the second stage, and the fourth stage is shifted to the third stage, one stage at a time. The mounting angle of the cam 16 is adjusted so that a start signal is output when the cam 16 is in the position shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained. First, it is assumed that objects to be transported arrive at each row of buffer conveyors 10 in the order shown in FIG. Then, based on the start signal from the cam 16, the first row of buffer conveyors 1
0 is activated and the conveyed articles on said conveyor 10 are loaded onto tray T ₁ at point S ₁ . At this time, tray T ₂ is a point.
Located at S ₀ position. Then, the shift register is shifted by one stage, and the buffer conveyor 10 in the second row is activated to load the conveyed article onto the tray _T2 at the point _S2 . Similarly, the objects in the third row are placed on the tray at point ₃ .
Loaded on T ₃ .

As is clear from the above description, the method of the present invention includes a shift register buffer conveyor that stores the order of arrival of conveyed objects, and as long as the conveyed objects are waiting on any buffer conveyor, each tray is continuously The main conveyor 1 can be moved efficiently without the occurrence of empty trays. Also,
When the conveyance amount of each conveyance supply conveyor decreases, the conveyances are loaded onto the main conveyor from each conveyor in proportion to the amount carried in by each conveyor, and when the conveyance amount is large, Conveyed articles can be equally loaded onto the main conveyor from a plurality of conveyed article supply conveyors. Therefore, there is an effect that there is no backlog of conveyed articles and that all the conveyed article supply conveyors can be used rationally.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conveyor layout according to a conventional control method, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a conveyor layout according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a shift register. 1... Main conveyor, 2... Tray, 6, 7,
8, 9...Conveyed object supply conveyor, 10...Buffer conveyor, 11...Conveyed object, 12...Loader conveyor, _T1 to _T3 ...Tray.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Connecting a plurality of parallel conveyor belts to one main conveyor having a large number of trays,
Each conveyor for supplying conveyed articles is composed of a loader conveyor connected to the main conveyor and a buffer conveyor connected to the loader conveyor, and the tray reaches the loading point with the respective conveyor for supplying conveyed articles from the reference point of the main conveyor. The conveyance time of each loader conveyor is determined so that the time required for the conveyed articles on the buffer conveyor of the concerned conveyed article supply conveyor to reach the above-mentioned loading point after starting is equal, and each buffer conveyor A method for controlling a conveyor for supplying conveyed articles, wherein the conveyed articles are started at each tray pitch transfer time in the order in which they were placed on standby.