JPS6333225A - Article aligner - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" The present invention is capable of aligning the vertical and horizontal directions of packed products, for example, when automatically packaging packed products with different vertical and horizontal lengths into a box or case. The present invention relates to an article alignment device.

[Prior Art] When conveying vertically long articles on a conveyor and automatically placing them in a box or case, it is necessary to align the vertical and horizontal directions of the articles in advance. Conventionally, as a device for aligning the directions of such articles, for example, a device using a pie break is known. This type of alignment device (J) is designed to vibrate a chute which is tilted downward in the direction of movement of the articles, and the width of the chute is adjusted as the width of the chute increases in the direction of movement of the articles. The width of the product is gradually narrowed, and the width of the product is set to be slightly wider at the outlet.In such an alignment device, the product is vibrated (1) while the chute L is slid down to gradually correct its posture. Orient the articles so that the longitudinal direction faces the direction of travel at the exit of the coat.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the alignment device using a vibrator as described in -)-, it is difficult to allow the articles to slide down slowly (J).
The disadvantage is that the processing speed is slow because it has to be done. Further, when the ratio of the length and width of the article is small, there is a problem that simply vibrating the instep causes the article to rotate and the posture of the article cannot be reliably corrected.

This invention has been made in view of the technical circumstances described in 1-1 above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an article arranging device that can reliably and quickly perform arranging processing of articles.

Means for Solving Problem 1] The article alignment device of the present invention includes a conveyance mechanism for conveying the articles, and a rear side of the article F to be conveyed to the conveyance mechanism.
The longitudinal direction is oriented in a direction different from the traveling direction, and the article is temporarily stopped by engaging the side of the article being conveyed in the 1)72 state.
-1 the conveyance means; a stopper mechanism which operates to tilt the article so that the longitudinal direction of the article faces the traveling direction;
a discrimination mechanism for determining the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, and the stopper mechanism has a dimension in the width direction of the sound sending mechanism that is longer than the width of the article and shorter than the length of the article. A pair of locking tools are provided spaced apart from each other, and are configured to include a locking tool that releases the engagement with one of the "1" articles based on the determination result of the determination mechanism.

[Operation] In the article aligning device configured as described above, by disengaging one of the locking tools based on the determination result of the posture of the article to be stopped by the stopper mechanism, the other locking tool is released. The article can be rotated using the stop as a fulcrum, and its longitudinal direction can be directed in the direction of travel.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an article aligning device according to an embodiment. Reference numeral 1 in the figure is a separation mechanism that supplies articles 2 such as, for example, approximately rectangular parallelepiped-shaped bagged pack products, and this separation mechanism 1 includes an alignment mechanism 3 disposed at the lower level of which the articles 2 are placed by a vacuum suction lower level (not shown). The article 2 is configured to be dropped one by one (ζ-1). At this time, the article 2 is placed with the l+7 width direction facing 0τi backward direction (the 4-way direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper in Fig. 1), and the longitudinal direction facing up and down. Direction also (
"It is in the left 71 direction (Y position). Alignment mechanism 3
teeth,! - 2) A separation mechanism 1 to fJ (for aligning the fed articles 2 in the longitudinal direction or 1) so that they face downward, and is constructed as follows.

That is, tube number 4 in FIG. 3 is a frame.

On the -1 part i\i surface 4a of the frame 4, there is a chute (conveying mechanism) 5 which is tilted downward toward the front.
1't+ has been given. The chute 5 has a bottom plate 6, a side plate 7,
The distance between the side plates 7 and 7 is as follows.
The width of the width of the article 2 is set to be slightly wider than the width of the article 2 at its lower end. In addition, a pair of optical sensors (discrimination mechanisms) 8 and 9 are installed on the encoder 15, located on the center line -1- and spaced apart in the downward direction.
It is being These optical sensors 8 and 9 are connected in parallel to each other to form an OR circuit. Further, an ultrasonic sensor (discrimination mechanism) 10 is provided at a location slightly to the left of the optical sensor 8. The optical sensor 8.9 and the ultrasonic sensor 10 are connected to a cylinder mechanism 11.9 which will be described later. +2 detects the presence or absence of the article 2 to be stopped, and the combination of the respective detection signals causes the article 2 to stop.
This is to determine the posture of the person.

The frame 4 also has an axis line that is connected to the bottom plate 6 of the chute 5.
A pair of cylinder mechanisms (stopper mechanisms) 11 and 12 (only the cylinder mechanism 11 is shown in the figure) are provided, which are oriented in a direction perpendicular to the cylinder mechanism.

These cylinder mechanisms II and 12 have their pistons
1-Tool) Ila and +2a are on the bisector of the straight line connecting the optical sensors 8 and 9, and the distance between them is the same as the article 2.
They are positioned so that they are slightly shorter than the length of the article and wider than the width of the article, and are spaced apart from each other in the left and right direction. The pistons 11a and +2a are movable into and out of the chute 5, and when the article 2 is fed with its longitudinal direction directed in a direction different from the traveling direction, the pistons 11a and +2a abut against the side of the article 2. 7 Temporarily stop the lever stone 1- Let's do it, -).

Further, a cylinder mechanism 13 similar to the cylinder mechanism 13 is also provided on the 1 side of the cylinder mechanism I+, 12 (j, and the cylinder mechanism 13 has its piston 13a): 1. -1-
It is located at the middle temperature line 1- of 5. The piston 13a faces the outlet A of the coater 5, and when the article 2 or its longitudinal direction is fed in the traveling direction, it comes into contact with the side of the article 2 and stops it. 1-
Sashiro 3L is becoming a sea urchin.

Furthermore, a defective discharge mechanism 14 is provided at the bottom of the freight 4. This defective discharge mechanism 14 determines the l'% of the articles 2 and discharges non-standard articles. It is structured as follows.Zunawara, frame A
There are discharge packets 15 installed on the upper and lower sides of No.4. The upper end portion is rotatably supported in the direction of arrow P and 0, as shown in FIG.
1 has been given.

The cylinder mechanism 17 serves to temporarily stop the article 2 in the discharge bucket 15 through its screw 17a. Further, inside the discharge packet 15, a saw pressure plate 1-18 is disposed whose surface is oriented in the thickness direction of the discharge bucket 15. The pressure brakes 1 and 18 are cylinder mechanisms 19
When the cylinder mechanism 19 is in an extended state, the article 2 is pressed by the wall of the discharge bucket (15). On the other hand, the back surface of the discharge packet 15 is cut out in a rectangular shape so that it does not interfere with the suppression plate I8 when rotated in the direction of arrow P.

Further, a detection plate 20 having unevenness 20a is attached to the suppression plate 18 via a shaft 21. Detection plate 2
0 is -1- when the cylinder mechanism 19 is in the extended state,
The article is moved to the front of the engineering sensor 22 attached to the frame 4, and the engineering sensor 22 determines whether any unevenness of the detection plate 20 is located in front of it.
Please try to judge the degree of the problem.

In FIG. 1, 23 is a waiting packet, 24 is a packet conveyor, 25 is an index table (B feeding device, and the articles 2 fed from the alignment mechanism 3 indicated by - are waiting in a waiting bucket 23. After that, the four packets are simultaneously supplied to the packet conveyor 24, and
The index table supplying device 25 is configured to supply the index table one by one.

Next, the action of aligning the directions of the articles 2 by the article aligning device described in -1- will be explained.

First, the article 2 supplied from the separation mechanism 1 is transferred to the piston ll.
It is temporarily stopped by any one of a, 12a, and 13a. In this case, there are four possible postures of the article 2 as shown in FIGS. 4(A) to 4(D). FIG. 2A shows a state in which the short side of the article 2 is in contact with the piston 12a and the long side is in contact with the piston Ila, and the optical sensor 8.9 detects the article 2. There is. In this case, if the cylinder mechanism 12.13 with screws = 8-tons 12a and 13a is reduced, the article 2 will rotate in the direction of the arrow using the piston Ila as a fulcrum, and its longitudinal direction will be directed downward (while falling at 1). I know what will happen.

In addition, FIG. 2B shows a state in which the short side of the article 2 is in contact with the piston Ila, and the side without the long side is in contact with the piston 12a, and the optical sensor 8 and the ultrasonic θU sensor 10 is detecting article 2. In this case, it can be seen that the cylinder mechanism II of the piston 11a should be brought into the contracted state, contrary to the case shown in FIG. In addition, in the same figure (C), both ends of the side part forming the long side of the article 2 are pistons IIa, , +2a.
The optical sensor 8 and the ultrasonic sensor 10 are sensitive to the
The figure (1') shows a state in which the short side of the article 2 is in contact with the screw 13a and the optical sensor 9 is sensitive to it. Table 1 summarizes the relationship between the sensing sensor and the cylinder mechanism to be brought into the contracted state for each of the aspects shown in FIGS.

In the state shown in Table 1, Figure 4 (D), the cylinder mechanism 13
Since there is no problem in placing the cylinder mechanism 12 in the contracted state at the same time that the optical sensor 8 or 9 is in the contracted state, the cylinder mechanism 13 is always set in the contracted state when the optical sensor 8 or 9 is sensed, and , ■Ultrasonic sensor lO
When the cylinder mechanism 11 is sensed, the cylinder mechanism 11 is brought into a contracted state.

■When the ultrasonic sensor 10 does not respond, the cylinder mechanism 1
2 is in the reduced state. This means that two types of processing can be performed.

Then, the article 2 whose orientation has been aligned as described above is dropped into the discharge packet 15 to determine its thickness, and if the article is defective, the discharge packet 15 is rotated to discharge the defective article. Further, in the case of a non-defective item, the cylinder mechanism 17 is brought into a contracted state and the item 2 is dropped into the waiting packet 23.

In the article alignment device as described above, the articles 2 are stopped by the respective pistons Ila, +2a, and 13a, and when the longitudinal direction of the articles 2 is different from the traveling direction, the pistons Ila,
Since the articles 2 are configured to be rotated using one of the fulcrums 12a as a fulcrum, the articles 2 can be aligned at high speed and reliably.

Further, since it is only necessary to perform two types of processing for the state of the article 2 to be stopped, the processing circuit can be easily configured.

In the above embodiment, the article 2 is conveyed by sliding down on the chute 5, but the structure is not limited to this. For example, the article 2 may be conveyed horizontally. The cylinder mechanism II, 12.13 as described above may be provided opposite the belt conveyor.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the article alignment device of the present invention includes a conveyance mechanism for conveying the articles, and a conveyance mechanism for conveying the articles, the longitudinal direction of which is oriented in a direction different from the traveling direction. A stopper that temporarily stops the article by engaging with the side of the article to be conveyed in the state, and "cooperates with the conveying means described in 1." to tilt the article so that the longitudinal direction of the bipedal article faces the direction of travel. and a determination mechanism for determining the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, and the stopper mechanism is provided with a mechanism that is longer than the width of the article in the width direction of the transport mechanism and longer than the length of the article. A pair of locking devices are provided spaced apart from each other with short dimensions, and a locking device is provided to release one of the objects from the object based on the judgment result of the judgment mechanism, thereby speeding up the process of arranging the objects. Moreover, the effect can be obtained that it can be carried out reliably.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 are diagrams showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall configuration of an article alignment device;
2 is a front view showing the essential parts of the article alignment device, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line l-lTlTl in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the aspect of the article. 2... Article, 5... Chute (transport mechanism), 11... Cylinder mechanism (stopper mechanism), 8...
...Optical sensor (discrimination mechanism), 9... Optical sensor (discrimination mechanism), 10... Ultrasonic sensor (discrimination mechanism), 11a... Piston (discrimination mechanism) stop),
12...Cylinder mechanism (stopper mechanism), 12
a... Piston (locking tool).

Claims (1)

[Claims] a conveyance mechanism that conveys articles having different vertical and horizontal lengths;
Among the articles conveyed by this conveyance mechanism, the article is temporarily stopped by engaging with the side of the article conveyed with the longitudinal direction facing in a direction different from the traveling direction, and works in cooperation with the conveyance means. a stopper mechanism that tilts the article so that the longitudinal direction of the article faces the traveling direction; and a determination mechanism that determines the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, and the stopper mechanism A pair of mechanisms are provided spaced apart from each other with dimensions longer than the width of the article and shorter than the length of the article in the width direction of the mechanism, and the engagement with one of the articles is released based on the discrimination result of the discrimination mechanism. An article alignment device comprising a locking device.