JPS629488B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a bottle feeding device.

In a rotary bottle washer, as shown in FIG. 1, bottle pockets 102 are provided at equal angular intervals around the outer circumference of a drum 101 that rotates intermittently, and a conveyor 103 for supplying bottles is provided on the front surface of this drum 101. The conveyor 103
A large number of bottles 104 arranged over the entire width of the drum 101 are moved to the pusher 10 of the bottle pushing device.
At step 5, the bottle is pushed into a predetermined bottle pocket 102 in one go for cleaning.

In recent years, it has become desirable to increase the capacity of rotary washing machines, and for this purpose it has become necessary to satisfy this condition without increasing the width of the drum 101 in the washing machine. As a countermeasure, the bottle pockets 102 of the drum 101 are now arranged in two or more stages instead of one (single row), and bottles can be inserted into the bottle pockets in each stage while the drum 101 is not rotating. It is effective to make it possible to push the To this end, it is necessary to increase the capacity of the conveyor 103, quickly and accurately set the level of the pusher or bottle alignment position for the bottle pockets of each stage, and further ensure the reliable supply of bottles to the conveyor and increase its speed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and embodiments thereof will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 7.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a conveyor machine frame, which is provided on the front side of the drum 101 of the bottle washer described above (see FIGS. 1 and 7). The drum 101 is an example of a bottle holder, and two rows of bottle pockets 102A, 10 are provided at multiple locations at equal angles around the drum 101.
It has 2B. As clearly shown in FIG. 3, rotating shafts 2,
3 is supported, and the rotating shaft 3 on the other end side is operatively connected to a variable speed motor 6 via a reducer 4, a coupling 5, etc. Further, a boss 7 is externally fitted onto the rotating shaft 3 so as to be relatively rotatable. The boss 7 has a pair of arms 8 extending in the same direction, and a rotating shaft 10 is supported between a pair of bearings 9 fixed to the tips of the arms 8. A first gear 1 meshes with this rotating shaft 10 and the rotating shaft 3 rotating at the fixed position described above.
1 and a second gear 12 are fixed to each other, and the output of the variable speed motor 6 is transmitted to the rotating shaft 10 via these gears 11 and 12. A pair of endless chains 13, which are examples of rotary bodies for transporting bottles, are arranged in parallel over almost the entire length of the machine frame 1, and the beginning of the forward path of the endless chains 13 is connected to the rotating shaft 2 at one end of the machine frame 1. The starting wheel 14 is fixed, and the end wheel 15 is wound around the rotating shaft 10 having the first gear 11. As is clear from FIGS. 4 to 6, attachments 16 are fixed to the endless chain 13 at regular intervals in its longitudinal direction. That is, attachment 16
consists of four support plates stretched parallel to each other between a pair of endless chains 13, and the two support plates 16A on both sides are taller than the two inner support plates 16B. At the same time, each support plate 16A, 16B
Notched through holes 17 are formed at two locations. The machine frame 1 has horizontal shafts 18A, 18B,
18C is pivotally supported, and these horizontal shafts 18A, 1
The endless chain 13 at the lower part of 8B, 18C
An egress and egress rod 19 is arranged parallel to the outward path of the motor. The retractable rod 19 is divided at its center, and the ends thereof are connected to each other at the tip of a swing link 20B fixed to the central horizontal shaft 18B. In addition, the base end of the retractable rod 19 is located on the horizontal shaft 18 located at the upper part.
The tip of the swinging arm 20A fixed to A is connected to the piston rod 21A of the cylinder 21, and the tip of the swinging arm 20A is connected to one of the pair of swinging arms 20C fixed to the horizontal shaft 18C located at the upper part of the swinging arm 20A. Connected to the tip of something. The tip of the other arm 8A is connected to the tip of the arm 8A fixed to the boss 7 by a connecting rod 19A. Furthermore, springs 22 are interposed at two locations between the ejection rod 19 and the machine frame 1, and the springs 22 always urge the ejection rod 19 in the forward direction of the endless chain 13. Almost the entire length of the endless chain 13 is supported and guided by a guide rail 23 disposed at the lower part of its outward path. Guide rail 23
is divided near the horizontal axis 18A, one of which is a bottle carrying section rail 23A, and the other is a bottle alignment section rail 23B. The divided ends are connected to each other by a hinge 24 so as to be bendable in the vertical direction, and the contact surface of each end is configured as a circular arc surface 24A centered on the hinge 24. The starting end of the bottle carry-in section rail 23A is fixed to the free end of an arm 25 that is relatively rotatably supported on the rotating shaft 2 of the starting section wheel 14. On the other hand, a metal fitting 26 having a horizontally long elongated hole 26A is fixed to a required location (three locations in the illustrated example) in the middle of the bottle alignment section rail 23B, and each of the horizontal shafts 18A, 18B described above is fixed to the elongated hole 26A. , 18C and extending substantially horizontally.
Each free end of 7C is a roller 28A, 28B, 28C
engaged via. Therefore, the egress and egress movement of the egress and egress rod 19 accompanying the pushing and pulling movement of the cylinder 21 is
Swing arms 20A, 20B, 20C, horizontal shaft 18
A, 18B, 18C, arm 27A, 27B, 2
7C, rollers 28A, 28B, 28C, metal fittings 26
As a result, the bottle alignment section rail 23B moves up and down within a certain stroke while remaining horizontal, and as a result, the bottle loading section rail 23A moves relative to the bottle alignment section rail 23B. It swings up and down around the rotating shaft 2 while bending and stretching. Further, since the egress and egress movement of the egress and egress rod 19 is transmitted via the joint rod 19A, the arm 8A, and the boss 7, the end wheel 15 aligns the bottles by vertical swinging of the arm 8 around the rotation axis 3. It follows the rise and fall of the section rail 23B and swings up and down while its relative position is fixed. At that time, the second gear 1
2 moves up and down around the first gear 11 while being engaged with it. The return path of the endless chain 13 is guided by an idler (not shown) in a relaxed state, thereby raising and lowering the guide rail 23 and moving the end wheel 15.
The expansion and contraction of the forward path length due to the vertical movement of the cylinder is now absorbed.

A pair of spiders 30 are provided on the upper part of the starting wheel body 14 to face it. The spider 30 has a recess 30A on its outer periphery at a pitch corresponding to the arrangement pitch of the attachment 16. The spider 30 is interlocked and connected to a drive device (not shown) via a coaxial gear 31, and the endless chain 13
The recess 30A and the attachment 1 rotate in synchronization with the movement of the attachment 16 as the attachment 16 moves.
With the bottle V stored in the space formed by the concave portion 16C of 6, the bottle V is inserted into the endless chain 13.
send it on its way. The bottle V is fed between the spider 30 and the starting end of the endless chain 13 through the chute 32. As is clear from FIGS. 2 and 4, the chute 32 is
The bottle consists of a pair of guide plates 32A for guiding the mouth and bottom of the bottle, and a plurality of guide rods 32B arranged between the bottle plates 32A. The chute 32 has a vertical portion and a curved portion following the vertical portion, and the tip of the curved portion extends between the starting end of the outward path of the endless chain 13 and the spider 30. At this time, the tip of the guide rod 32B is placed through the cutout hole 17 of the attachment 16. For example, in the case of a lightweight and specially shaped bottle V such as a medical OPP bottle made of plastic, when the bottle V is supplied to the space between the recesses 30A and 16C of the spider 30 and the attachment 16,
Since the bottle V is likely to jump in this space, extending the tip of the guide rod 32B to the starting end of the outward path of the endless chain 13 through the cutout hole 17 of the attachment 16 as shown in the illustrated example facilitates high-speed feeding of the bottle V. This is extremely effective for following the tilting motion of the starting end of the forward path. Note that 33 is a fixed support member for the chute 32.

A bottle pushing device 35 is installed at the top of the machine frame 1. As is clear from FIGS. 2 and 7, a support shaft 37 is provided horizontally between the upper surfaces of the left and right beam members 36 provided in the washing machine, and a pair of support shafts 37 are swingably mounted on this support shaft 37. The middle portion of the swinging rod 38 is supported. A shaft 39 is rotatably provided between one end of the pair of swinging rods 38, and a push lever 40 framed around this shaft 39 is suspended. Attachments 41 for pushing bottles are fixed to the horizontal connecting member 40A of the pushing lever 40 at required pitches over almost the entire width thereof. An arm 42 is fixed to the end of the shaft 39, and a cylinder 43 is interposed between the lower end of the arm 42 and the beam 36. On the other hand, a counterweight 44 is provided between the other ends of the swinging rods 38. The counterweight 44 is attached to the swinging rod 38 so that the distance from the swinging center of the swinging rod 38 can be increased or decreased.
8 is engaged with the elongated hole 38A. A lever 45 is integrally attached to the swinging rod 38 and extends toward the other end.
An operating rod 46 is vertically installed at the tip of this lever 45. The lower end of the operating rod 46 is connected to the horizontal shaft 18 mentioned above.
It is connected to the free end of an arm 47 protruding from A. Therefore, in conjunction with the swinging of the arm 27A due to the operation of the cylinder 21, the arm 47 swings in the opposite direction to the arm 27, and the operating rod 46 is raised and lowered. Therefore, since the swinging rod 38 swings, the push lever 40 moves up and down in conjunction with the bottle alignment section rail 23B. Note that the bottle pushing attachment 41 is set to be located directly above the bottle alignment section rail 23B,
Furthermore, at the extrusion limit and the retraction limit of the cylinder 21, the bottle alignment section rail 23B is configured to correspond to the bottle pockets 102A in the upper row of the drum 101 and the bottle pockets 102B in the lower row, respectively. In FIG. 2, 48 is a position detection device for the push lever 40, and 49 is a stop lift detection device.

Bottle V passes through chute 32 to spider 3
0 and the starting wheel body 14, and is held on the attachment 16 to be transported to the bottle loading section rail 23A.
The bottles are moved on the bottle alignment section rail 23B and further aligned on the bottle alignment section rail 23B. Completion of alignment of the bottles V is detected by the stop lift detection device 49, and upon this completion, feeding of the bottles V is stopped, and then the push lever 40 swings in the approach direction with respect to the front surface of the drum 101 by actuation of the cylinder 43. . As a result, the bottle alignment section rail 2
Bottles V lined up on 3B are placed on drum 1 at the same time.
01 into the bottle pocket 102A or 102B. The pushing operation of the bottle V by the push lever 40 is performed alternately once when the bottle alignment section rail 23B is in each of the upper and lower positions, but at this time, the push lever 40 is pushed against the bottle alignment section rail 23B. Because it moves up and down in conjunction,
Bottle pushing attachment 4 for bottle V
The operating state of No. 1 is the same in either case. In FIG. 7, arrow A indicates a case where bottles V arranged at a lower level are pushed in, and arrow b indicates a case where bottles V arranged at a higher level are pushed in. In the illustrated example, as the bottle alignment section rail 23B is set to an upper or lower level, the bottle loading section rail 23A changes between an inclined state and a horizontal state, but in either case, the bottles V passing through the chute 32 are Guide rod 32B
This ensures reliable supply to the starting end of the outward path of the endless chain 13.

In the illustrated example, there are two levels of bottle pockets 102.
A and 102B are provided at equal angular intervals around the outer circumference of the drum 101.
Even if bottle pockets are provided in more than one stage, modifications can be easily made to accommodate this.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to continue feeding bottles onto the bottle alignment section rail even while the bottle alignment section rail is being moved up and down. Therefore, it can greatly contribute to improving the performance of the washing machine.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side view of the bottle washer, Fig. 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is an X-
4 is a partial enlarged view of FIG. 4, FIG. 5 is a partial enlarged view of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a Y-Y cross-sectional view of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a partial enlarged view of FIG. Z
- It is an enlarged view corresponding to a Z cross-sectional view. 101... Drum, 102A, 102B... Bottle pocket, 6... Variable speed motor, 8... Arm, 8A... Arm, 10... Rotating shaft, 11...
1st gear, 12...2nd gear, 13...Endless chain, 14...Start wheel body, 15...End wheel body, 19
……Exit rod, 19A……Suite rod, 20
A, 20B, 20C... Swinging arm, 21... Cylinder, 21A... Piston rod, 23... Guide rail, 23A... Bottle loading section rail, 2
3B...Bottle alignment section rail, 25...Arm,
27A, 27B, 27C...Arm.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An endless rotating body for transporting bottles disposed along the front surface of a bottle holder having bottle pockets in multiple stages above and below, a guide rail that supports and guides this rotating body on its outward path, and a guide rail at the beginning of the outward path of the rotating body. A first wheel body and a final wheel body are wound around each other, a first gear coaxially connected to the final wheel body, and a first gear that meshes with the first gear and rotates at a fixed position. It is equipped with two gears and an egress/egress rod provided along the forward path of the rotating body, and the guide rail is divided into a bottle loading section rail and a bottle aligning section rail at the middle part, and the rails can be bent in the vertical direction. connected to,
The starting end of the bottle loading section rail is swingably supported around the same axis as the starting section rail, and is provided between the bottle aligning section rail and the terminal section wheel and the ejecting/retracting rod to follow the movement of the ejecting/extracting rod. arms for raising and lowering the bottle alignment section rail and swinging the end ring body around the rotational axis of the second gear, so that the bottle alignment section rail corresponds to the bottle pockets of each stage in sequence. 1. A bottle feeding device characterized by being provided with an ejecting/retracting actuating device for protruding or retracting said ejecting/retracting rod stepwise in order to raise and lower the bottle.