JP2001063702A - Method for automatically charging powdered material into container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for automatically charging powdered materials into a container, capable of lightening the workers' burden, avoiding their risk of inhaling the powdered materials, and carrying out a series of charging works with less assistance. SOLUTION: An apparatus for practicing this method includes a hopper 3 into which powdered materials are put, a vibrating feeder 5 for charging the powdered materials from the hopper 3 into a container 8 placed on a turn table 7, and weighing units 9, 9a, 10 capable of weighing the container 8 during the charge of the powdered materials into the container 8. When the container 8 is brought to a position where it is charged with the powdered materials, the weighing units 9, 9a are brought to a weighable position. Immediately before the time when the charge weight of the powdered materials into the container 8 reaches a predetermined value, the supply of the powdered materials from the hopper 3 to the vibrating feeder 5 is stopped, and the vibration of the vibrating feeder 5 is reduced. When the charge weight of the powdered materials into the container 8 reaches the predetermined value, the operation of the vibrating feeder 5 is stopped, and the weighing units 9, 9a are brought to a non-weighing position. Then the turn table 7 is turned by one pitch to bring the subsequent container 8 to the charging position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically charging powder, particularly raw material powder, into a container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a powder operation, in particular, an operation of packing a predetermined amount of powder into a container and transporting the same, an operator fills the container with the powder in the simplest and primitive way, and puts it on a platform scale. There is a method of adjusting the loading weight by putting on. This method
When the amount is small or the number of containers is small, it is not a burden, but when the powder itself has a large specific gravity like metal powder, the number of containers is large, and the filling amount per container is large, it is extremely burdensome. This is a big task. In such a case, an electric hoist for charging the powder into the hopper, a hopper for storing the powder, a hopper opening / closing valve for opening and closing a discharge port for extracting the powder in the hopper, and a hopper A vibrating feeder for loading the extracted powder into a measuring can, a turntable having a measuring device for mounting the measuring can and rotatably provided and measuring the weight of the measuring can,
A powder charging device including a jiff crane for lowering a measuring can from a turntable is used.

[0003]

By the way, in this kind of powder charging apparatus, the process from extracting the powder from the hopper to lowering the charged measuring can from the turntable is performed in principle semi-automatically. However, the supply of powder to the measuring can is usually not constant and often requires manual weight adjustment, especially when the specific gravity of the powder is large, such as metal powder, or needle-like powder. This tendency was remarkable when the shape of the powder was not spherical. For this reason, it is usually impossible to remove the hand from a series of operations for packing and transporting powder of this type in a measuring can.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a situation of the prior art, and has as its object to reduce the burden on the worker and also to avoid the risk of powder inhalation by the worker. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically charging powder into a container, which enables a series of charging operations to be performed with less manual operation than is possible.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for automatically charging powder into a container according to the present invention comprises a powder storage hopper provided with an opening / closing valve for a discharge port, and a powder discharged from the hopper. And a turntable that can sequentially bring the powder charging container immediately below the drop of the vibrating feeder, and the container when the container is brought just below the drop of the vibrating feeder. A weighing device capable of supporting and weighing, the weighing device is brought to a position for measuring the weight of the container when the container is brought directly below the outlet of the vibrating feeder by the turntable. When the measured weight is equal to or less than a first predetermined value, return the weighing device to a position where the weight of the container is not measured and rotate the turntable by a predetermined amount,
If the measured weight is equal to or greater than the first predetermined value and equal to or less than a second predetermined value that is greater than the first predetermined value, the weight is set to zero, the on-off valve is opened, and the vibrating feeder is opened. When the powder in the popper is operated and charged into the container, when the weight of the charged powder reaches a predetermined value before a desired value, the on-off valve is closed to reduce the vibration of the vibrating feeder. When the weight of the charged powder reaches the desired value, the vibration feeder is stopped, and the weighing device is returned to a position where the weight of the container is not measured, and the turntable is rotated by a predetermined amount.

According to the present invention, when the container loaded with the powder reaches a predetermined position due to the rotation of the turntable, the container is automatically loaded and unloaded, and an empty container is placed on the turntable instead. It is designed to be installed.

According to the present invention, when the weight of the powder charged in the container exceeds the desired value by a predetermined amount, it is determined that a failure has occurred, the on-off valve is closed, and the vibrating feeder is stopped. An alarm is issued.

Further, according to the present invention, the result of measuring the powder by the measuring device is recorded.

Further, according to the present invention, the powder is iron or metal powder having a specific gravity higher than iron, and its shape is non-spherical.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on illustrated embodiments. 1 is a front view showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure at the time of making a device fully operate.

1 to 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a 2 ton class hoist, and 2 denotes a cloth made of cloth in which metal powder such as iron powder to be charged is placed and an outlet for metal powder is provided at a lower portion. The flexible container 3 is a hopper for temporarily storing metal powder, 4 is an electric on-off valve (gate valve) provided at the outlet of the hopper 3, and 5 is provided directly below the outlet of the on-off valve 4 to store the metal powder. A known vibrating feeder 6 for transporting to a predetermined position is provided at an outlet of the vibrating feeder 5 and is used for charging the metal powder sent by the vibrating feeder 5 into a measuring container (a measuring can) described later. The charging chute 7 to be used is rotatably mounted, and as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of equally spaced sections 7A having openings 7a formed in a bottom portion for accommodating and placing a weighing container described later. Turntable with Le, 8 compartments of the turntable 7 7
A measuring container 9 into which the metal powder stored and placed in one of A is mounted and fixed on the platform scale 10 and fits into the opening 7a located directly above the turntable 7 at the top. Telescopic air cylinder having a support 9a capable of supporting the measuring container 8, a servo motor 11 for rotating the turntable 7 via a speed reducer 12 and a miter gear 13,
14 is a limit switch for determining the origin of rotation of the turntable 7, and 15 is a flexible container 2
A hopper stand 16 is used to transfer metal powder from the hopper 3 to the hopper 3. A jib crane 16 is used to lower the weighing container 8 having finished weighing from the turntable 7. In this apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, the air cylinder 9 and the weighing platform 10 move the charging chute 6 and the It is arranged so as to be aligned with the measuring container 8 on a vertical line. In addition, charging chute 6
The metal powder loading inlet is designed to come just above the measuring container 8. The air cylinder 9 and the platform scale 10 constitute a weighing device.

Next, the operation of the above apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. The operation is started by first confirming whether or not powder is present in the hopper 3. As a result of the confirmation, if there is no powder in the hopper 3, the flexible container 2 prepared in advance by the hoist 1 is lifted from the floor and transported to a position immediately above the hopper 3, and then the worker moves the flexible container 2 to the lower part of the flexible container 2. A certain outlet is opened and the hopper 3 is filled with powder. Next, the worker arranges the measuring containers 8 (ten pieces) at predetermined positions in all the sections 7A of the turntable 7, turns on the automatic weighing switch, and starts the weighing operation.

Thus, the power is turned on, the power lamp and the stop lamp are turned on, the start switch is turned on, the turntable 7 starts rotating, and the operation lamp is turned on, the stop lamp and the end lamp are turned off. The rotation of the turntable 7 hits the limit switch 14 and turns ON,
The origin lamp is turned on, and the turntable 7 is returned to the origin position and stopped at any position. When the turntable 7 stops at the home position, the air cylinder 9
Is raised, and the support 9a enters the opening 7a of the section 7A located immediately above the turntable 7, and
Is lifted from the turntable 7 and the measuring container 8
Is put on the platform scale 10, and the upper limit switch of the air cylinder 9 is turned on to make the weighing device weighable. In this case, the weight of the regular weighing container itself (displayed as 10K)
In consideration of this, when the indicated weight of the platform scale 10 is less than 10K, an alarm is issued and at the same time, the air cylinder 9 is contracted to return the measuring container 8 to the turntable 7, and the manual / The pitch feed is executed, the turntable 7 is rotated by one pitch, the weighing container 8 in the next section is brought to a position immediately above the weighing device, and the weighing device is made ready for weighing again.

Thus, when the weighed value is larger than the predetermined value 10K and smaller than the predetermined value 10K + α, the weight is 0 kg according to the system of the present invention.
And the vibration feeder 5 is activated,
The gate valve opening timer is turned ON, the opening / closing valve 4 of the hopper 3 is opened, and the metal powder in the hopper 3 is sent by the vibrating feeder 5 and charged into the measuring container 8 via the charging chute 6. Shortly before the weight measured by the weighing device reaches the desired charging weight β (20 kg in the embodiment), preferably when the charging weight reaches β-1 kg (in the embodiment, when reaching 15 kg). The gate valve closing timer is turned on, the on-off valve 4 of the hopper 3 is closed, the vibration of the vibrating feeder 5 is weakened, and the speed of charging the measuring container 8 is reduced. The feeder switch is turned off immediately before the indicated value of the platform weigher 10 reaches the desired loading weight β (in this embodiment, when the weight reaches 19.99 kg), the vibration feeder 5 is stopped, and the instantaneous vibration feeder is stopped. The metal powder present between the outlet of 5 and the measuring container 8 enters the measuring container 8 and just reaches the desired weight β. Here, the weighing is completed and the weighing result is printed out. During this time, when the measured value exceeds the desired weight β and becomes larger than a predetermined value (in the embodiment, when it exceeds 20.1 kg), it is determined to be a failure,
The device is shut down and an alarm is issued. When the apparatus is stopped, manual / 1 pitch feed is executed to rotate the turntable by one pitch, and the above procedure is repeated again.

When the desired amount of metal powder is charged into the measuring container 8 as described above, the air cylinder 9 is lowered, and when the air cylinder 9 reaches the lowermost position, the cylinder lower switch is turned on, and the servo motor is turned on. 11 starts, the turntable 7 rotates by one section (one pitch), is stopped again, and the charging procedure described above is repeated. In this case, the rotation of the turntable 7 is controlled by the servomotor 10 to accelerate, rotate at a constant speed, decelerate, and stop. When the overrun occurs at the stop, the turntable 7 is treated as a failure. The above procedure is repeated until the metal powder is charged in all of the 10 measuring containers. The weighing container that has been charged in this way is lowered from the turntable 7 by the operator using the jig crane 16, and one automatic weighing operation is completed.

In the above embodiment, a case was described in which metal powder having a relatively large specific gravity was charged into a measuring container as powder. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various powders other than metal powder may be used. It is needless to say that the present invention can also be applied to charging.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a method capable of measuring and charging a powder into a predetermined container with extremely high precision and without human intervention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a part of a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when the apparatus is fully automatically operated.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another part of the flowchart showing the operation procedure when the apparatus is operated fully automatically.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hoist 2 Flexible container 3 Hopper 4 Opening / closing valve 5 Vibration feeder 6 Charging chute 7 Turntable 7A Section 7a Opening 8 Measuring container 9 Air cylinder 9a Support base 10 Scale 11 Servomotor 12 Reduction gear 13 Miter gear 14 Limit switch 15 Hopper mount 16 Jib crane

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B65G 65/30 B65G 65/30 B G01G 13/08 G01G 13/08 F term (Reference) 2F046 BA02 BB03 DA03 DA08 FA03 3E018 AA02 AB01 BA05 BB03 DA04 EA01 EA03 3E070 AA19 AA31 AB11 CA04 QA01 RA15 WG11 WJ10 3F075 AA08 BA02 BB01 CA02 CA09 CB01 CB04 CC07 CD08

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A powder storage hopper provided with an opening / closing valve for a discharge port, a vibrating feeder for feeding powder extracted from the hopper to a predetermined position, and a powder loading just below a drop of the vibrating feeder. A turntable capable of sequentially bringing the containers, and a weighing device capable of supporting and weighing the containers when the containers are brought directly below the outlet of the vibrating feeder, wherein the containers are operated by the turntable. The weighing device is brought to a position where the weight of the container is measured when the weighing device is brought down just below the outlet of the vibrating feeder. The turntable is rotated by a predetermined amount by returning the container to a position where the weight is not measured, and when the measured weight is equal to or more than the first predetermined value and equal to or less than a second predetermined value that is larger than the first predetermined value. In this case, the weight is set to zero, the on-off valve is opened, and the vibrating feeder is operated to load the powder in the popper into the container. When the predetermined value is reached, the on / off valve is closed to reduce the vibration of the vibrating feeder, and when the weight of the charged powder reaches the desired value, the vibrating feeder is stopped and the weighing device is moved to the container. A method of automatically charging powder into a container in which the turntable is rotated by a predetermined amount after returning to a position where weight is not measured. 2. When the container loaded with powder reaches a predetermined position due to rotation of the turntable, the container is automatically unloaded, and an empty container is mounted on the turntable instead. The method of claim 1, wherein 3. When the weight of the powder charged in the container exceeds the predetermined value by a predetermined amount, it is determined that a failure has occurred, the on-off valve is closed, and the vibration feeder is stopped to issue an alarm. The method according to claim 1. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a result of weighing the powder by the weighing device is recorded. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the powder is iron or a metal powder having a higher specific gravity than iron. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the powder is non-spherical in its shape.