JPS636404B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an integrated packaging method and apparatus for a large number of articles of various types, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated packaging method and apparatus for a large number of articles of various types, and more specifically, a method and an apparatus for integrating and packaging a large number of articles of various types. One group of articles is to be packaged, and various articles are taken out as required from the group of articles to be packaged, either by mixing them or without mixing them, and stacking them onto a first regular packaging material to a state where the articles are almost fully loaded. When the first operation of repeatedly producing a plurality of fully loaded packages is carried out, and there are final residual articles that do not reach the fully loaded state after the first operation,
In addition to the first operation, a second operation is performed in which the final residual product is stacked on the first regular packaging material or a second regular packaging material smaller than the first regular packaging material to produce one final package. The present invention relates to an integrated packaging method and apparatus for a large number of products of various types, minimizing the total number of packages.

Packaging of an article is generally an operation carried out for purposes such as (i) transportation, (ii) storage, (iii) display for sale, and (vi) integration of the article in a manner suitable for its intended use. When planning, (1) the number of packages should be as small as possible, (2) all packages should have the same shape, and (3) packages should be stacked in multiple rows and stacks. The stacked body has a similar shape to the internal space of the casing or chamber that houses the stacked body so that no unusable surplus space is created when the stacked body is
(4) Various constraints must be considered, such as the size, shape, and weight of each piece being appropriate for ease of transportation and handling. Said
Since conditions (1) to (4) contain mutually exclusive elements, they are generally not satisfied at the same time; one or two of the above conditions may be satisfied depending on the individual packaging purpose and use. It is common for packaging plans to be made as follows. However, in the past, these conditions have generally not been strictly investigated when planning a packaging plan, and therefore there has been no packaging machine that operates to satisfy relatively complex conditions.

Packaging methods for complex conditions such as those mentioned above include:
For example, if we receive an order for several types of items with different sizes and shapes and specify the number of each type, it is necessary to package all of the items in several packages and then ship them to the orderer. In this case, a packaging method is used that aims to meet the condition (1) above by collecting the required number of various items without mixing or mixing them, and packaging each of the collected items in a standard packaging material, such as a standard container. can be mentioned. In order to realize this packaging method, it is necessary to store the items in each container so that there is as little surplus space as possible, but since the dimensions and shapes of the items to be stored are not all the same, at present, it is not possible to There is no way to satisfy the above condition (1) other than to rely on the visual intuition of the packaging worker to store the product in the container.

For example, as shown in Figure 1, there are several types of articles A to F with different base areas (for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that these articles are rectangular parallelepipeds and their heights are the same). ), each of which contains an arbitrary number (including zero), is mixed on the two types of rectangular bottom plates a and b shown in Figure 2 to make a large number of packages, the total number of the packages is the result. It is desirable to package items in a way that minimizes the

Therefore, in order to minimize the total number of packages obtained by mixed packaging of several types of products as described above, it is necessary to minimize the surplus area or surplus space in one package. However, in order to have the machine perform this operation automatically, it is necessary to analyze the conditions under which each floor plate is loaded with articles. Examples of this analysis method include a random method, an optimization selection method, a large and small selection method, and a restore method.According to the research of the present inventors, the above analysis method discovers the full array conditions of articles. It has been found that the algorithm and programming required for this method are very complex and the time required for analysis is very long, and therefore it is difficult to apply it to a practical packaging machine.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the actual situation as explained above, and its purpose is to:
A group of articles consisting of an arbitrary number of articles of different sizes and shapes is to be packaged, and this group of articles to be packaged can be packaged using a fixed packaging material (for example, a fixed plate or container). It is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging method and device that can automatically mix and package a plurality of packages in a fully loaded state and produce a plurality of packages, while minimizing the total number of packages.

In other words, the present packaging method invention targets a group of articles that includes arbitrary numbers of articles of different sizes, and mixes or takes various articles from the group of articles to be packaged. The first operation of producing a plurality of fully loaded packaging bodies is carried out by repeatedly taking out the required number of packaging materials without mixing them and stacking them on the first regular packaging material in a substantially full state. If there is a final residual product that does not reach a full capacity after the first operation, in addition to the first operation, the final residual product is transferred to the first regular packaging material or a second packaging material smaller than the first regular packaging material. A packaging method that minimizes the total number of packages by performing a second operation of collecting and stacking the various articles to produce the last one package, wherein the first operation includes mixing or stacking the various articles. A fully loaded model group in which the standard packaging material is loaded to a substantially full state with different stacking forms without being mixed up, and a loading space remaining model group that similarly leaves a loading space in the standard packaging material are prepared in advance. search for a fully loaded model that matches the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged from the fully loaded model group, select the compatible fully loaded model if there is one, and take out a predetermined article according to the article arrangement of the fully loaded model;
A fully loaded package is created by stacking and arranging these articles on the first packaging material, and if there is no suitable fully loaded model, one is selected from among the loading space remaining model group that matches the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged. After selecting the loading space remaining model, and taking out predetermined articles according to the article arrangement of the loading space remaining model and stacking and arranging them on the first packaging material, it is still possible to stack and arrange them in the remaining loading space. The method is characterized in that a fully packed package is produced by stacking and arranging the articles until they are almost fully loaded.

Furthermore, the invention of the packaging device comprises the following (a) and (b) as a device for carrying out the packaging method invention.

(a) Respective shaped packaging material supply devices for supplying the first and second shaped packaging materials to the loading position of the products to be packaged, and various types of shaped packaging materials to be loaded on the shaped packaging materials placed at the loading position. a respective article supply device for supplying articles to be packaged; a positioning and loading device for positioning and accumulating the articles supplied from the article supply device on the regular packaging material; and a A mechanical operating device having a discharge device for discharging fixed-form packaging materials.

(b) A control device that outputs operation signals to each of the mechanically operated fixed-form packaging material supply device, article supply device, positioning and loading device, and conveyance device in order to sequentially operate the fixed-form packaging material supply device, the article supply device, the positioning and loading device, and the conveyance device, A group of fully loaded models prepared in advance so that the articles accumulated and loaded on the material are in a substantially full state, and a group of loading space remaining models prepared in advance so that the article loading space remains in the regular packaging material are stored. By inputting the stored storage device, the type and number of each of the articles included in the group of articles to be packaged, the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged can be determined from among the fully loaded model group and the remaining loading space model group. an arithmetic device that selects a suitable model and calculates the dimensions of the article loading space, the types and dimensions of the articles to be loaded therein, and the types and dimensions of the remaining articles among the articles to be packaged;
an output device that outputs a signal to the mechanical operating device for controlling the number and type of articles to be loaded on the regular packaging material and the loading posture according to the output signal of the arithmetic device; A control device including an input device for inputting the types and respective numbers of articles to be processed into the computing device and transmitting various operation detection signals in the mechanical operating device to the computing device.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

According to one embodiment of the method of the present invention, for example, one article group containing arbitrary numbers of several kinds of articles A to F having different bottom surface areas as shown in FIG. A large number of packages are created by automatically mixing them on regular packaging materials (including boxes with a regular volume) such as rectangular bottom plates a and b, and the total number of packages is minimized as a result. It becomes possible to package goods.

That is, in carrying out the method of the present invention, the full load condition or maximum load condition of articles on the floor plates a and b can be quickly determined by referring to the following two types of model groups prepared in advance. Of these two types of model groups, the first model group is in a state where when several types of articles are mixed and loaded on the floor plate a, no more articles can be loaded on the floor plate a, that is, a fully loaded state. , and this first model group will be tentatively referred to as a "full model group" or a "first model group" in this specification. This fully loaded model group 1 consists of more than 20 fully loaded models, and FIG. 3 shows one of them, fully loaded model ₁₀ , that is, the first model. On the other hand, in the second model group, as shown in Figure 4, only the article arrangement along one side of the floor plate a is almost fully loaded, but the arrangement along the other side of the floor plate a is left undetermined. This is a group of models representing a loading state in which a remaining loading space _ax remains on the floor plate. In this specification, this second model group is tentatively referred to as the “loading space distribution residual model group”.
Or, let's call it the "second model group."
This loading space remaining model group 2 also consists of approximately 20 types of models, and FIG. 4 shows one of them, the second model ₂₀ , that is, the loading space remaining model.
This loading space remaining model group 2 all has a remaining loading space a _x , and any article can be loaded into this space a _x , and the area of this space a _x is determined for each model. shall be stored in advance in a storage device or the like.

The first model group was also created for the second bottom plate b (the second bottom plate b is 1/2 of the first bottom plate a in this example), and is shown in FIG. An example of this is fully loaded model 1 _S0 (i.e. the first model)
shows. The second model group may be prepared for the second bottom plate b, but since the second bottom plate b is the final package and has a relatively small ratio of the bottom plate area to the product area, the second bottom plate b There is little need to set up a second model group (that is, an array model with a residual product space) for .

In the method of this invention, the various articles A to
When making a package by loading one product group containing an arbitrary number of F on the bottom plate a, select one of the two model groups according to the type and number of articles included in the product group. After selecting the fitting model,
Articles are extracted from the article group according to the selected model and loaded on the bottom plate a, and after this operation is performed the required number of times, the remaining items are placed on the bottom plate a or the bottom plate b.
This is then loaded on top of the package to form the final package.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the order of execution of the method of the present invention.

The part surrounded by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 6 may be omitted if there is a condition that the total base area of the articles included in the group of articles to be packaged is necessarily larger than the area of the second square bottom plate, In that case, the execution of the program will first begin with a search for a fully loaded model group (ie, a first model group) for the first rectangular floor plate a. That is, in the method of the present invention, articles are loaded on the floor plate in the following order.

First, when the type and number of items included in the group of items to be packaged are known, a search is made to see if there is a fully loaded model 1 corresponding to the type and number, and if there is, the items are stored according to the model. is loaded on the first floor plate a, but if not, the second model group 2 (i.e.
After finding a suitable model from among the remaining loading space model group (remaining loading space model group) and loading the goods on the floor plate a according to the model, the remaining loading space _a Load any desired item from among the remaining items one by one to make the bottom plate a fully loaded, and then repeat the same operation as above for the next bottom plate,
After determining whether or not the last remaining items can be fully loaded on the small second rectangular floor plate b, if they can be fully loaded, select one of the fully loaded model group 1 _S related to the second square floor plate b. A suitable model is selected, and articles are loaded onto the second rectangular floor plate according to the selected model.

In Figure 6, the "origin" represents the origin for calculating the reduction in the remaining loading space when loading goods into the remaining loading space in the second model group, and this "origin"'' is different for each model in the second model group, so when loading articles into the remaining loading space, it is necessary to move the origin for calculation for each selected model.

In the examples described above, only the case where the method of the present invention is applied to a two-dimensional article packaging method is shown, but it is clear that the present invention method can also be applied to a three-dimensional article packaging method, and in that case, It will be obvious that in the above embodiments, the bottom plates a and b can be considered as the walls of a regular packaging material such as a box.

7 and 8 are a schematic diagram of a control device and a plan view of a mechanical operating device for carrying out the method of the present invention as described above.

The control device 3 stores the first and second model groups (that is, the first model group including the first models 1 ₀ and 1 _S0 and the second model group including the second model 2 ₀ ). It has a storage device 4, an arithmetic device 5, an input device 6, and an output device 7.
It further includes an intermediary device 9 connected to a control device and a detector of the mechanical operating device 10. The input device 6 transmits a signal inputted from a keyboard 8 or the like connected thereto to the arithmetic device 5, and also inputs a signal fed back from the mechanical operating device 10 via the intermediary device 9 to the arithmetic device 5. The keyboard 8 is used to specify articles to be packaged.

As shown in FIG. 8, the mechanical operating device 10 for performing mechanical operations includes (a) a first bottom plate supplying unit for supplying first and second square bottom plates a and b to an article loading position P; Device 11 and second bottom plate supply device 1
2. (b) Each supply device A ₀ to F ₀ for articles A to F, (c)
A positioning device for positioning the articles A to F with respect to the bottom plate at the loading position, (d) An article conveying device for transporting the articles A to F to the loading position P, and (e) Carrying out the bottom plate after loading the articles. It consists of unloading equipment, etc.

The first and second floor plate supply devices 11 and 12 have stockers 13 and 14 for stacking the first and second square floor plates a and b, respectively, and push out the lowest square floor plate to the loading position P. It has pushers 15 and 16 for
These pushers 15 and 16 are adapted to be driven by respective drive devices CL ₁ and CL ₂ such as cylinders. Loading position P is the bottom board unloading device 1
The bottom plate pushed out from each stocker 13, 14 is placed on the chain conveyor of the carry-out device 17. A bottom plate stopper 18 that moves up and down is provided below the chain conveyor, and can position the tip of the bottom plate delivered to the loading position P at a predetermined position.

Among the article supply devices A ₀ to _{F 0} , the article E and F supply devices E ₀ and F ₀ are composed of belt conveyors 19 and 20, which are so-called stock conveyors. Belt conveyor 21 forming part of the article conveyance device
are arranged facing one side edge of the On the other hand, the supply devices A ₀ to _{A 0} for the articles A to D are belt conveyors 2
1, and each has stockers 22-25 and pushers 26-29. These stocks 22
25 are each equipped with an elevating platform, and the elevating platform is driven by a drive device such as a cylinder (not shown).

A belt conveyor 30 is installed adjacent to the chain conveyor constituting the bed board delivery device 17, and the belt conveyor 30 and the belt conveyor 21 constitute an article conveyance device. A turntable 31, which constitutes the main part of the article positioning device, is arranged between these belt conveyors 21 and 30, and the articles conveyed by the belt conveyor 21 are transferred to the belt conveyor via the turntable 31. It is scheduled to be transferred to the 30th. Near the end of the belt conveyor 21 is a pusher 32 for transferring the articles on the belt conveyor 21 onto the turntable 31.
is arranged, and the pusher 32 is attached to one end of the pivot shaft 33 so that the article is held at a position above the belt conveyor 21 until the article reaches the terminal end of the belt conveyor 21.

A pusher 34 is also provided on the side of the turntable 31 in order to transfer the articles on the turntable 31 onto the belt conveyor 30. on the other hand,
A belt conveyor 3 is located on the side of the belt conveyor 30.
A pusher 35 for pushing out the articles on the stack 0 to the loading position P is arranged. The pushers 35 are supported on a movable table 36 together with a driving device CL ₃ that drives each pusher 35, and the movable table 36 is connected to another driving device.
CL ₄ allows it to move parallel to the belt conveyor 30. A stopper/guide 37 extending perpendicularly to the belt conveyor 30 is fixed on the moving table 36 , and the stopper/guide 37 extends above the belt conveyor 30 .
The stopper/guide 37 and the pusher 35 constitute an article positioning device together with the turntable 31, and determine where the articles are to be loaded with respect to the bottom plate placed at the loading position P.

An angle pusher/stopper 38 for positioning articles is provided at the loading position P. In this embodiment, the angle pusher and stopper 38 has two right-angled sides, one side for positioning one side of the article, and the other side for positioning one side of the article. It is configured to position the end face. The angle pusher and stopper 38 is also provided as a device for bringing the articles on the floor plate into close contact with each other, and for that purpose the angle pusher and stopper 38 is provided.
is connected to a drive device CL ₅ such as a cylinder so as to be driven in a direction C forming an angle of 45° with respect to both sides thereof. That is, when the angle pusher/stopper 38 is driven in the direction of the arrow C shown in the figure, the article that is in contact with both sides of the angle pusher/stopper 38 receives a component force perpendicular to both sides, so that the article is pushed onto the bottom plate. items can be brought into close contact with each other.

In FIG. 8, CL ₆ to _{CL 9} are drive devices such as cylinders for driving the pushers 26 to 29, CL ₁₀ is a drive device for the pusher 34, and M ₁ is a motor for driving the belt conveyor 19. _M2 is a drive device for the belt conveyor 20, _M3 is a drive device for the belt conveyor 21, _M4 is a drive device for the belt conveyor 30, _M5 is a drive device for the delivery device 17, and _CL11 is a drive device for the pusher 32. A driving device for turning and propulsion. Control equipment (for example, switches, solenoid valves, etc.) and various detectors for these drive devices are not shown. Also,
The illustration of the drive device for the turntable 31 is also omitted.

Next, the operation of packaging articles in the apparatus of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure will be explained.

Now, as a group of items to be packaged, "7 B, 8 D,
Assume that a group of goods consisting of "E7 items" is specified.
When an order form or a command sheet in which this article group is written is entered into the keyboard 8, the arithmetic unit 5 first uses the program shown in FIG. A suitable fully loaded model from one model group (ie, fully loaded model group) is called from the storage device 4. This fully loaded model ₁₀ is in this case the one shown in FIG. Next, the arithmetic unit 5 searches for a full load model for the remaining articles, but since there is no suitable model, it searches for a suitable model from the second model group, that is, the loading space remaining model group. In this case, the selected second model ₂₀ is the one shown in FIG. In this second model ₂₀ , there is a remaining loading space _aX , so the calculation device 5 further performs calculations to fill this remaining loading space _aX with the remaining articles, and finally, as shown in FIG. An approximate fully loaded model 2 is obtained. (In this case, the remaining residual space a _X0
is too large to be loaded with article E. ) For the last remaining item, use the second square plate b
After it is confirmed whether or not it can fit completely, it is found that it can fit completely, so a suitable model among the group of fully loaded models related to the second rectangular floor plate b is called. This fully loaded model 1 _S0 is shown in Fig. 12.

As the operations within the control device 3 are performed as described above, at the same time, the control device 3 issues operation signals to the control equipment of each part of the mechanical operating device 10, and each part of the device 10 is operated in the following sequence. Ru. (Please mainly refer to FIG. 8 for the following explanation.) First, in the first bottom plate supply device 11, the pusher 15 moves only one square bottom plate a from the stocker 13 to the loading position P. After being pushed out, the bottom plate a is positioned at a predetermined position on the unloading device 17 by the stopper 18. At the same time, the goods supply device
1 by pusher 29 from stocker 25 of B ₀
Articles B are pushed out onto the belt conveyor 21 one by one at predetermined intervals;
1 in the direction of the dotted line arrow in FIG. At this time, the pusher 32 is still held at a position above the belt conveyor 21, so that the article B passes under the pusher 32 and reaches the end of the belt conveyor 21. After the article B reaches the end of the belt conveyor 21, the pusher 32 is lowered onto the belt conveyor 21 by rotation of the pivot shaft 33, and is then driven in the direction of the solid arrow to move the article B onto the turntable 31. Push up. The turntable 31 is rotated by a predetermined angle as indicated by the dotted arrow in order to determine the attitude of the article B based on a command from the control device 3 (although it may not be rotated in some cases), and then the turntable is rotated by the pusher 34. Article B on 31 is extruded onto belt conveyor 31.

On the other hand, the moving table 36 and the stopper/guide 37 are positioned at predetermined positions with respect to the article B, and the article B, which is sent by the belt conveyor 30 in the direction of the dotted arrow, collides with the stopper/guide 37 and stops. . Subsequently, the pusher 35 is propelled in the direction of the solid arrow, and the article B on the belt conveyor 30 is transferred onto the rectangular bottom plate a on the carry-out device 17 by the pusher 35. In this case, the article B is pressed toward one side of the angle pusher and stopper 38. In this way, the first five articles B are loaded one after another on the first rectangular bottom plate a, but as the loading position on the bottom plate changes, the stopper/guide 37
moves in a direction parallel to the belt conveyor 30.

After the five articles B are loaded on the first bottom plate a so as to realize the fully loaded model ₁₀ in FIG. 9, the angle pusher and stopper 38
are pushed out in an extremely short stroke in the direction of arrow C in the figure, thereby eliminating the gaps between the articles on the floor plate, and placing the articles in close contact with each other on the floor plate a.At the same time, the central part of the floor plate It is centered so that it is located at

After the article B is loaded onto the first floor plate a to realize the fully loaded model ₁₀ in Fig. 9 through the above operations, the first floor plate is transferred to the unloading device along with the articles on it. 17, it is carried out in the direction of the dotted line arrow in the figure.

Subsequently, the second rectangular bottom plate a is supplied to the loading position P by the bottom plate supplying device 11 in the same manner as described above.
Articles B, D, and E are sequentially loaded onto the bottom plate a in the same manner as described above so as to realize the loading model 2 shown in FIG. 11. That is, first, two articles B are loaded on the bottom plate a following the loading model 2 in FIG. 11, then five articles D are loaded in the direction or posture as shown in FIG. 11, and finally, 3
After loading the articles E, the loading onto the second floor plate is completed. After the articles have been loaded, the articles on the bottom plate are moved towards the center of the bottom plate by the angle pusher/stopper 38 and are brought into close contact with each other.

After the second floor plate is carried out together with the articles thereon by the carrying-out device 17, the loading model 1 shown in FIG.
First, the bottom plate b is supplied to the loading position P so as to realize _S0 . At the same time, three articles D are intermittently supplied onto the conveyor 21 from the article supply device _D0 , and these articles D are sequentially loaded onto the floor plate b in the same manner as described above. Next, the goods supply device
The first one of the articles E fed onto the conveyor 21 from E ₀ is loaded adjacent to article D on the floor plate b, and the following three are stacked in a line as shown in FIG. be loaded into the

As described above, according to the apparatus of the present invention, a specified group of articles is packaged in such a way that the number of packages is minimized, which is advantageous for transporting and storing articles. A packaging method that automatically performs the above-mentioned operations (i.e., a packaging method that minimizes the total number of packages while packaging an arbitrary number of various products in a fixed form) has not been developed in the past, but the present invention According to the above, a novel packaging method and apparatus are provided which can achieve the above-mentioned purpose (i.e., to mix and package an arbitrary number of various products in a fixed form and at the same time minimize the total number of packages).

The embodiments described above are only examples of embodiments of the present invention,
The present invention is not limited to this example.

13 to 16 are partially modified embodiments of the mechanical operating device 10 shown in FIG. 8 and detailed structural diagrams thereof, and the modified embodiment shown in FIG. This relates to the connecting portion between the devices E ₀ and F ₀ and the article conveyor 21. That is, in this modified embodiment, each article supply device
The conveyors 19 and 20 of E ₀ and F ₀ are provided at a higher position than the conveyor 21, and swinging roller shoots 39 and 40 are provided facing the terminal ends of the conveyors 19 and 20, respectively.

Figure 14 shows one of the swinging roller chute 3.
9 and conveyor 19 drive mechanism details are shown. (Since the conveyor 20 and the swinging roller chute 40 have the same structure, they are omitted from illustration.) In FIG. 14, 19a is a drive pulley of the conveyor 19, 19b is a drive shaft of the drive pulley 19a,
19c is a one-way clutch fitted to the drive shaft 19b; 19d is a gear integral with the one-way clutch 19c; 19e is a gear meshing with the gear 19d;
_M1 is a drive motor for the conveyor 19. As shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, one end of a locking arm 19f extending downward of the swinging roller chute 39 is fixed to a non-center position of the gear 19e, and the other end of the locking arm 19f is fixed to a non-center position of the gear 19e. The tip of the frame 39a of the swinging roller chute 39 is supported by the swing roller chute 39.

The vicinity of the tip of the locking arm 19f, that is, the portion close to the swinging roller chute 39, is pulled upward from a stationary part such as the machine frame by a tension spring 19g, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.

The base end of the frame 39a of the swinging roller chute 39 is fixed to the swing shaft 39b.
9b is always given a counterclockwise torque in FIG. 14 by a torsion spring 39c attached thereto. In addition, in Figure 14, 39d
is a bearing rotatably supporting the swing shaft 39c. Further, 39e is a limit switch fixed on the swinging roller chute 39, and is engaged with an article moved onto the swinging roller chute 39.

Next, the operation of the conveyor 19 and swinging roller shoot 39 configured as described above will be explained. When supplying the article E on the conveyor 19 to the conveyor 21, the motor _M1 rotates forward to move the conveyor 19 to the first
The article E is driven in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 to feed the article E into the swinging roller chute 39. In this case, the frame 39a of the swinging roller chute 39 is supported by the locking arm 19f, and the locking arm 19f is held horizontally as shown in FIG. 15. In addition, the drive shaft 19b
The one-way clutch 19c fitted in the gear 1
Since rotation is not transmitted to gear 9d, gear 19e meshing with gear 19d does not rotate, and therefore, no external torque acts on locking arm 19f to rotate it. It's still.

When the leading article on the conveyor 19 is transferred onto the swinging roller chute 39, the article engages with the limit switch 39e.
After the motor _M1 is slightly reversed by the signal,
Stop. Therefore, the belt conveyor 19 is also driven in the opposite direction before stopping, and the one-way clutch 19c is also rotated in the reverse direction together with the gear 19d. the result,
Only the first article on the conveyor 19 is transferred to the swinging roller chute 39, and reverse rotation (counterclockwise rotation in FIG. 16) is also transmitted to the gear 19e meshed with the gear 19d. The locking arm 19f, which is integral with the roller chute 39, overcomes the pulling force of the tension spring 19g and rotates counterclockwise as shown in FIG. I'll take it off. Therefore, due to the weight of the article E placed on the swing roller chute 39, the swing shaft 39b
As a result, the articles E on the chute 39 slide down thereon and are transferred onto the conveyor 21. The swinging roller chute 39 that has released the article E automatically returns to its original position, that is, the horizontal position, by the force of the spring 39c. On the other hand, motor M ₁
The drive shaft 19b is rotated so that the conveyor 19 is driven again in the article feeding direction after once stopping the reverse rotation.
When the locking arm 19 is rotated forward, the counterclockwise torque that had been acting on the gear 19e disappears, so the locking arm 19
The tip of f is pulled up by the force of the tension spring 19g and returns to its original position. In this case, gear 1
Gear 9e receives clockwise torque by locking arm 19f, but gear 19d is easily rotated because one-way clutch 19c is free.

Although some preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it is clear that the present invention can be practiced in various further embodiments. For example, instead of the conveyors 21 and 30, a crane-type aerial conveyance device may be provided, and the aerial conveyance device may carry an orientation indexing device having the same function as the turntable 31.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the explanation was made on the assumption that all the articles are of the same height, but even if the heights of the articles are different, it is possible to make the height of the stacked articles the same by stacking them. In this case, it is only necessary to control the apparatus so that the articles supplied from each article supplying apparatus are fed in such a stacked state. Therefore, the present invention can be applied even when the heights of the articles are different. be understood.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of an article used in the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a floor plate used in the method of the present invention, and FIGS. The figure is a plan view showing an example of an article loading model set in the method of the present invention, Figure 6 is a flowchart of execution instructions of the method of the present invention, and Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the control device of the apparatus of the present invention. , FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view of a device for performing mechanical operations of the device of the present invention, FIGS. 9 to 12 are diagrams showing article loading models executed by the method and device of the present invention, and FIG. 13
14 is a partially cutaway perspective view of FIG. 13, and FIGS. 15 and 16 are viewed from the direction of arrow f in FIG. 14. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of the state. A to F: Articles, a, b... Square bottom plate, 3... Control device, 10... Mechanical operating device, _A1 to _F0 ... Article supply device, 11... First bottom plate supply device, 12... Second bottom plate Supply device, 17... Carrying out device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A group of articles consisting of an arbitrary number of articles of different sizes is to be packaged, and various articles are mixed or mixed from the group of articles to be packaged. The first operation of producing a plurality of fully loaded packaging bodies is carried out by repeatedly taking out the required number of packaging materials and stacking them on a first regular packaging material in a substantially full state. If there is a final residual product that does not reach the full capacity after the above operation, in addition to the first operation, the final residual product is accumulated in the first regular packaging material or a second regular packaging material smaller than the first regular packaging material. A packaging method that minimizes the total number of packages by performing a second operation of loading and producing one final package, wherein the first operation involves mixing or mixing the various articles. Preparing in advance a fully loaded model group in which the standard packaging material is loaded to a substantially full state without changing the stacking form, and a loading space remaining model group that similarly leaves an article loading space in the standard packaging material, Searching for a fully loaded model that matches the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged from the fully loaded model group, selecting the compatible fully loaded model if there is one, taking out predetermined articles according to the article arrangement of the fully loaded model, and packaging these articles. are assembled and arranged on the first packaging material to produce a fully loaded package, and if there is no suitable fully loaded model, a loading space suitable for the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged is selected from among the loading space remaining model group. After selecting a space remaining model and taking out predetermined articles according to the article arrangement of the loading space remaining model and stacking and arranging them on the first packaging material, there are still articles that can be stacked and arranged in the remaining loading space. A method for stacking and packaging a large number of articles of various types, comprising stacking and arranging them until they are almost fully loaded to produce a fully loaded package. 2 A group of articles consisting of an arbitrary number of articles of different sizes is to be packaged, and the required number of articles are taken out from the group of articles to be packaged, either by mixing them or without mixing them. A first operation is performed in which a plurality of fully loaded packages are produced by repeatedly stacking and stacking these on a first regular packaging material until the package is almost fully loaded, and after the first operation, it is fully loaded. If there is a final residual product that does not reach the final size, in addition to the first operation, the final residual product is accumulated and stacked on the first regular packaging material or a second regular packaging material that is smaller than the first regular packaging material. A packaging device that minimizes the total number of packages by performing a second operation of producing one package, the packaging device comprising: (a) supplying the first and second shaped packaging materials to a loading position for articles to be packaged; and respective article supply devices for supplying various packaging target articles to be loaded onto the fixed shape packaging materials placed at the loading position, (b) a mechanical operating device having a positioning and loading device for positioning and accumulating and stacking articles on the regular packaging material; and a carrying-out device for transporting the regular packaging material after loading of the articles is completed; (b) the machine; A control device that outputs operation signals to each of a fixed-form packaging material supply device, an article supply device, a positioning and loading device, and a conveyance device in order to sequentially operate a fixed-form packaging material supply device, an article supply device, a positioning and loading device, and a conveyance device, which are stacked and stacked on the fixed-form packaging materials. a storage device storing a fully loaded model group prepared in advance so that the articles are substantially fully loaded; and a loading space remaining model group prepared in advance so that a loading space remains in the fixed packaging material; Then, by inputting the type and number of each of the articles included in the group of articles to be packaged, a model suitable for the configuration of the group of articles to be packaged is selected from the group of fully loaded models and the group of remaining loading space models. and a calculation device that calculates the dimensions of the article loading space, the types and dimensions of the articles to be loaded therein, and the types and dimensions of the remaining articles among the articles to be packaged;
an output device that outputs a signal to the mechanical operating device for controlling the number and type of articles to be loaded on the regular packaging material and the loading posture according to the output signal of the arithmetic device; (a) and (b) above; An integrated packaging device for a large number of products of various types.