JPS63191794A - Cap mounting and inspection device for tube - 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] [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a device for attaching a cap to a plastic tube and inspecting the same. Tubes used as containers are often made of plastic.

Such a tube is completed by forming a main body by molding a plastic laminate film into a cylindrical shape, attaching a shoulder part to one end of the main body, and attaching a cap to the shoulder part.

When manufacturing such tubes, handling is relatively cumbersome. That is, this tube is lightweight, easily deformed, and has high elasticity, so it bounces during transportation, and the edge of the tube body gets caught on a conveyor or the like, which may cause the tube to be reversed. For this reason, before each process such as forming the tube body, attaching the shoulder part, and attaching the cap, it is necessary to reverse the tube body back and forth.
Inspections for deformation, etc. must be carried out, and a final completion inspection must also be carried out. For this reason, the manufacturing process for such tubes inevitably requires a large number of inspection steps.

Conventionally, when manufacturing such tubes, the equipment that performs the steps of forming the tube body, attaching the shoulder section, and attaching the cap and the inspection equipment are separate machines, and there is no communication between these machines. The structure was such that the tubes were conveyed sequentially. For this reason, there was a problem in that the floor area required for installing these manufacturing devices became large. In addition, since the above-mentioned cap installation process is the final process, it is necessary to perform inspections before and after it, and since the tube is transported between many devices during this final process, new defects such as deformation of the duplex body may occur. This has resulted in problems such as a high incidence of defective products and a decrease in manufacturing efficiency.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances.
By incorporating and integrating the inspection mechanism into the tube mounting device, the floor space required for installing the device is reduced, and by performing multiple inspections within one device, the C-tube can be transferred between devices. This aims to improve manufacturing efficiency by reducing the number of times that defects occur, preventing the occurrence of new defects, and improving product quality.

[Means for solving the L problem and its effects] The present invention has the following features:
A front and rear inspection mechanism is installed at the station in front of the cap installation stage 3, and this front and rear check mechanism is used to inspect the front and rear reversal of the J-B. The front and rear ends of the tube are inspected for defects in cap installation,
Defects such as deformation of the tube body are detected, non-defective products are taken out by a non-defective product removal mechanism, and defective products are separately discharged by a defective product ejection mechanism. Therefore, the cap is attached and inspected within one device, reducing the floor space required for installing the device, and the dupe is inspected while attached to one device, allowing good and defective products to be separated. are automatically distinguished. Therefore, since these tubes are not transferred between multiple devices, new defects do not occur, and manufacturing efficiency and quality are improved.

[Example code] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 in the figure is the base of this device. And this base 1
A rotary table 2 is attached to the rotary table 2. This rotary table 2 is configured to rotate intermittently within a vertical plane. A plurality of mandrels 3 are provided on the outer circumferential surface of the rotary table 2 in a radial direction, and these mandrels 3 have two
There are 16 books in total, 8 sets per set. and,
This rotary table 2 is configured to rotate intermittently by 45 degrees and stop every third stage of eight stages. and,
A loading R structure 4 is provided at the first station.

At this first station, the mandrel 3
becomes horizontal. This loading mechanism 4 includes a duplex holder 1
Two tubes 20 without caps 23 are supplied from the tube 0, and these tubes 20 are moved horizontally by this loading mechanism 4 and are attached and held to a set of two mandrels 3.

Further, at the second station after the rotary table 2 has rotated by 45 degrees, a front-rear inspection mechanism 5, which will be described later, is provided to inspect whether the tube 20 is reversed front-rear or not.

Furthermore, at the next third station, there is a cap mounting Wil.
i%6 is provided. The caps 23 are stored in the hopper 11, and these caps are transferred to the parts feeder 12, aligned by the parts feeder 12, and supplied to the cap mounting mechanism 6 described above.

This cap mounting mechanism 6 chucks these caps 23 and places them on the nozzle portion 22 of the tube 20,
The cap 23 is rotated and screwed onto the nozzle portion 22. Note that at this third station, the mandrel 3 is vertical.

In addition, the fourth station next to this station is equipped with a completion inspection mechanism 7, which will be described later, and inspects the front and rear ends of the tube to which the cap is attached, checking the condition of the cap, deformation of the tube, etc. is inspected.

Furthermore, at the next fifth station, there is a good product take-out mechanism 8.
is provided. The non-defective product extraction mechanism 8 horizontally moves only non-defective tubes that have passed the above inspection to extract them from the mandrel 3, and sends them to the next packaging process or the like. Note that at this fifth station, the mandrel 3 is horizontal.

Further, a defective product discharge mechanism 9 is provided at the next sixth station. This defective product discharge mechanism 9 extracts tubes of defective products that have failed the inspection from the mandrel 3 and sends them through a chute 13 to a defective product collection box (f!
It is sent to

Further, this device is provided with a control section 15, which is configured to control the operation of this H1 body. Further, 14 is an operation panel.

Next, the above-mentioned #J post-inspection modification 5 will be explained with reference to FIG. In addition, in the second stationary console in which this front-back inspection mechanism 5 is provided, the mandrels 3tt, 45'
Although the mandrels 3 are slanted, the mandrels 3 are shown in a vertical state for ease of understanding in FIG. These optical detectors 25 each face the rear end of the tube 20 mounted on the mandrel 3, and are configured to irradiate the rear end with light and detect the reflected light. These optics 25 are connected to the detection circuit by fiber optic cables 26.

Further, at this station, the mandrel 3 is rotated by a rotary drive machine l1l (not shown), and the tube 20 is also rotated together with the mandrel 3. A match mark 21 is printed on the rear end of the tube 20, and when the tube 20 rotates and the match mark 21 faces the optical detector 24, the intensity of the reflected light changes. This front-rear inspection mechanism determines whether or not the shoulder portion is attached to the front and rear of the main body of the tube, depending on whether or not the matching mark 21 is detected, and sends the result to the control unit 15. send.

Further, the completion inspection mechanism 7 is constructed as shown in FIG. The fourth facility where this completion inspection inspection mechanism is installed
At the station, the mandrel 2 is stopped at an angle of 45", but like in Fig. 2, the mandrel 3 is drawn vertically in Fig. 3. This completion inspection mechanism has four imagers. Sensors 30a and 30b are provided. Two of these image sensors 30a are
They are arranged to face the front ends of the tubes 20 mounted on the book mandrel 3, and are configured to take images of the front ends of these tubes 20. The remaining two units 30b are arranged to face the rear ends of these tubes 20, and are configured to capture images of the rear ends of these tubes 20. Further, an illumination mechanism 31 is arranged on the opposite side of the tube 20 from the image sensor. The illumination mechanism 31 has a built-in light source 31 such as a fluorescent lamp, and is configured to irradiate the front end of the tube 20 with parallel light. Accordingly, the image sensor 30a is illuminated from the opposite side by the illumination mechanism 31 and is backlit, so as to capture the silhouette or outline of the front ends of these tubes 20.

In this completion inspection mechanism, the tubes 20 rotate together with the mandrel 3, the image sensor 3Qa reflects the silhouettes of the front ends of these tubes 20, and the image sensor 30b transmits the silhouettes of the rear ends of these tubes 20 and this The match mark 21 printed on the rear end is photographed. Signals from these image sensors are then sent to a detection circuit, where these signals are analyzed and various tests are performed.

First, tube 20! From the image of the IO end, cap 2
3 is installed. Furthermore, the distance from the top of the cap 23 to the edge of the rear end of the tube 29 is calculated to check whether the cap 23 is completely screwed on. Further, from the image of the rear end of the tube 20, it is inspected whether the rear end of the tube has any deformation such as crushing.

Furthermore, if the cap 23 is provided with a lid body that can be opened and closed, and the front surface of the lid body needs to correspond to the front surface of the main body of the tube, these tubes 23
The rotational position of the tube corresponding to the front of this cap 23 is determined from the front end of the tube, and the position of the alignment mark 21 at the rear end of this tube is determined, and from these positional relationships, the front of this cap 23 is determined. It is inspected to see if it is in the correct position relative to the front of the tube body. In addition to this, it is also inspected to see if any unusual conditions are detected in the images of the front and rear ends of these tubes. These test results are then sent to the 1lJa section 15 mentioned above.

The above-mentioned control section controls the operation of the above-mentioned non-defective product extraction mechanism 8 based on the signals from the above-mentioned [Noda front and back inspection mechanism 5 and completion inspection mechanism 7], and takes out only non-defective tubes that have passed these inspections. Send it to the non-defective storage container or send it to the next packaging process, etc.

The remaining defective tubes of the mandrel 3 are taken out by a defective product discharging mechanism at the next sixth station and sent to a defective product collection box or the like via a chute 13 or the like.

In the embodiment described above, cap mounting and multiple inspections can be performed simultaneously with one device, and the floor space required for installing the manufacturing device is reduced compared to the conventional method. Furthermore, there is no need to transport the tube between multiple devices for inspection, etc., and no new defects occur, improving manufacturing efficiency and product quality.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, eight sets of mandrels 3 are provided radially protruding from the rotary table 2 that rotates in a vertical plane, and a loading mechanism is installed at the first and fifth stations where these mandrels 3 are horizontal. 4 and a non-defective removal mechanism 8 are arranged, and the capping W binding structure 6 is arranged at the third station where the mandrel 3 faces vertically upward, so that the tube 2
0 is moved horizontally to load and unload it,
The loading and unloading of these tubes, which are relatively troublesome to handle, is ensured, and since the cap is attached to the upwardly facing tube from above, this attachment operation is ensured, and the structure of these mechanisms is also simplified. In addition, since the # post-inspection mechanism 5 and the completion inspection mechanism 7 are placed at the second and fourth stations where the mandrel 3 faces diagonally upward, the tube does not shift during these inspections.
Inspection accuracy improves.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the completion inspection mechanism 7 is configured to irradiate light from the opposite direction to the image sensor and photograph the silhouette of the front end of the tube. The image of the front end of the shaped tube becomes 11-pure, which facilitates the analysis of this image, reduces erroneous inspections, and improves the accuracy of inspection.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, the structure, arrangement, etc. of the turntable and mandrel are not necessarily limited to those described above. Further, the mandrels do not have to be arranged in pairs, but may be arranged one at a time.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention is capable of attaching the cap L1 with one device.
Since it is possible to test as many as 5 to 100 UW at the same time, the floor space required for setting up manufacturing equipment is saved, and there is no need to transport tubes between multiple equipment when performing these tests, so new No major defects will occur,
The effects are significant, such as improved manufacturing efficiency and improved product quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show one embodiment of the present invention, with Fig. 1 being a front view of the entire device, Fig. 2 being a perspective view showing the main parts of the front and back inspection mechanism, and Fig. 3 being a perspective view showing the main parts of the completion inspection mechanism. It is. 2... Rotating table, 3... Mandrel, 4... Loading mechanism, 5... @ rear inspection machine groove, 6... Groove between cap devices, 7... Completion inspection mechanism, 8...・Good product removal tFiI
M, 9... Defective product discharge 1 side, 20... Dicove, 2
3... Cap, 25... Optical detector, 30a, 3
0b...Image sensor 1no

Claims (1)

[Claims] a rotary table that is driven to rotate intermittently and stops at each of a plurality of work stations; a plurality of mandrels that are attached to the rotary table and inserted into the tube to hold the tube and are rotatable; A loading mechanism that loads the tube onto the mandrel and a matching mark printed on the rear end of the rotating tube installed at the next second station are optically detected, and the tube is determined based on the presence or absence of the matching mark. a front-rear inspection mechanism for detecting whether or not the front and back are reversed; a cap mounting mechanism for mounting a cap on the shoulder portion of the tube provided at the next third station; and a cap mounting mechanism provided at the next fourth station; A completion inspection mechanism is equipped with an image sensor that optically detects the front end and rear end of the rotating tube, and detects the attachment state of the cap and deformation of the tube. A device for capping and inspecting tubes, comprising: a mechanism for extracting good tubes from the mandrel; and a mechanism for discharging defective tubes, which is provided at the next sixth station and discharging defective tubes.