JP2014136631A - Carrier device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a carrier device capable of aligning an article in a constant attitude while carrying the article.SOLUTION: A carrying device 2 includes carrying means 6 having a carrying belt 11 for loading an article W on its upper surface and carrying the article. The carrying device includes charging means located at the side of the carrying means 6 and charging the article W on the upper surface of the carrying belt 11. The carrying belt 11 includes a carrying surface part 21 and a plurality of partition protrusions 22 protruding from the surface of the carrying surface part 21 and arranged at equal intervals. The carrying surface part 21 has an inclined part 25 on which the article W is slid until it abuts on the partition part 22 and aligned in a constant attitude.

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport device that transports articles.

  Conventionally, for example, a conveyance device described in Patent Document 1 is known.

  This conventional transport apparatus includes transport means (stacking conveyor) including a transport body that transports articles that are transported on the upper surface, and input means (joining line) that feeds articles onto the upper surface of the transport body of the transport means. It is equipped with.

  In addition, the transport body of the transport means partitions a transport surface portion that places an article on the top surface and transports the product in the transport direction, and an article that protrudes from the transport surface portion and is positioned at an interval in the transport direction and adjacent to each other in the transport direction. And a plurality of partition projections such as crosspieces.

JP2011-32020 (FIG. 1)

  However, in the above-described conventional transport device, for example, when the article is thrown from the input unit onto the transport surface portion of the transport body of the transport unit, the posture of the article may be collapsed. It will be transported by the transport means while the posture is not uniform.

  The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transport device that can align a certain posture while transporting an article.

  The transport apparatus according to claim 1 includes transport means including a transport body that transports an article on an upper surface thereof, and input means that throws the article into the upper surface of the transport body. And a plurality of partition protrusions that project from the transport surface part and are spaced apart from each other in the transport direction and partition the articles adjacent to each other in the transport direction. And the said conveyance surface part has an inclination-shaped inclination part which makes an attitude | position of the article | item slide by sliding an article | item until it contact | abuts to the said partition protrusion.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the conveying device according to the first aspect, the input means inputs the article into a position corresponding to the characteristic of the article on the upper surface of the conveying body.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the conveying device according to the first or second aspect, when the article is a heavy article, the loading means is disposed on the upper surface of the conveying body so as not to hit the heavy article against the partition projection. When the article is a lightweight article, the article is put on the upper surface of the carrier so that the article strikes the partition projection.

  The conveying device according to claim 4 is the conveying device according to claim 3, wherein the conveying surface portion of the conveying member of the conveying means has a horizontal horizontal portion for receiving articles thrown from the charging means, When an article is a heavy article, the heavy article is put on the upper surface of the horizontal portion so as not to hit the partition projection, and when the article is a lightweight article, the lightweight article is put on the partition projection. To the upper surface of the horizontal portion.

  The conveying device according to claim 5 is the conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the inclined portion of the conveying surface portion of the conveying member of the conveying means is inclined so as to incline upward in the conveying direction. It is.

  According to the present invention, the conveyance surface portion of the conveyance body of the conveyance means has an inclined portion that slides the article until it abuts against the partition projection to make the article posture constant, so that the article is conveyed. While being able to align to a certain posture.

It is a schematic side view of the conveying apparatus which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic plan view of a conveyance apparatus same as the above. (A) And (b) is explanatory drawing at the time of a heavy article being conveyed by a conveyance apparatus same as the above. (A) And (b) is explanatory drawing at the time of a lightweight thing being conveyed with a conveyance apparatus same as the above. It is sectional drawing of the conveyance means of a conveyance apparatus same as the above. It is a partial side view of the input means of a conveyance apparatus same as the above. It is a top view of the sorting system provided with the conveyance apparatus same as the above.

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

  In FIG. 7, reference numeral 1 denotes a sorting system, which is a sorting facility. The sorting system 1 includes a transport device 2 that transports articles W, a sorter 3 that sorts articles W according to the sort information, and these transports. A relay conveyance device 4 is provided between the device 2 and the sorting device 3 and conveys an article W from the conveyance device 2 and supplies the article W to the sorting device 3.

  The article W has a rectangular shape in plan view, and has a rectangular parallelepiped shape whose vertical length dimension (height dimension) is shorter than the horizontal length dimension (width dimension and length dimension). It is. The plurality of articles W that are sorting objects (conveyed objects) are not constant in size and weight.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 7, the transport device 2 includes one transport means 6 that transports the article W in the transport direction (rightward in FIG. 7), and the article W in the transport direction (upward in FIG. 7). And a plurality of (for example, two) input means 7 which are parallel to each other and are supplied to the transfer means 6. Each input means 7 has the same configuration, and is arranged on one side of the transport means 6 so as to be orthogonal to the transport means 6.

  The conveying means 6 is configured by, for example, one belt conveyor (joining conveyor) that is linear in plan view. The transport unit 6 includes a transport belt 11 that is an endless transport body that transports the article W from the loading unit 7 on the upper surface while transporting in the transport direction while rotating in a predetermined direction.

  The conveyor belt 11 is stretched around one drive roller 13 and a plurality of driven rollers 14 that are installed between a pair of roller support plates 12. Then, when the driving roller 13 is rotated by the power from the driving motor 15 as driving means, the conveying belt 11 rotates in a predetermined direction, and the articles W on the conveying belt 11 are conveyed in the conveying direction by this rotation.

  Both ends in the width direction of the conveyor belt 11 are sandwiched by a belt sandwiching body 16 so as to be movable from above and below. Each belt clamping body 16 is fixed to an attachment body 18 having a substantially U-shaped cross section fixedly attached to the frame 17.

  Here, the transport belt 11 is a belt-like endless transport surface portion 21 that transports the article W on the upper surface in the transport direction, and is projected from the surface of the transport surface portion 21 and is arranged at equal intervals in the transport direction. A plurality of partition projections (partitioning means such as a crosspiece) 22 that divide the articles W positioned and adjacent to each other in the transport direction so as to prevent the articles W from contacting each other are provided.

  Each partition projection 22 has a longitudinal shape in the longitudinal direction in the width direction, which is the short direction of the transport surface portion 21, and is fixed to the surface of the transport surface portion 21 by welding or the like. One end in the longitudinal direction of the partition projection 22 is located in the vicinity of one end in the width direction of the conveyance surface portion 21, and the other end in the longitudinal direction of the partition projection 22 is located in the vicinity of the other end in the width direction of the conveyance surface portion 21. Yes. One end in the width direction of the conveyance surface portion 21 is inserted into the attachment body 18 on one side and is movably clamped by the belt clamping body 16 on one side, and the other end portion in the width direction of the conveyance surface portion 21 is the attachment body on the other side. It is inserted into 18 and is held so as to be movable by the belt holding body 16 on the other side.

  A single article W is placed between a pair of partitioning projections 22 adjacent to each other in the transport direction. In other words, one article W is thrown into the portion of the upper surface of the conveyance surface portion 21 located between the adjacent partition projections 22. Further, the distance A between the adjacent partition projections 22 is longer than the width dimension of the article W, for example, twice or more the width dimension of the article W.

  In addition, the surface of the conveyance surface portion 21 is a smooth surface having slipperiness, and the friction between the surface of the conveyance surface portion 21 and the article W is relatively small, and the article W becomes slippery with respect to the conveyance surface portion 21. Yes.

  As is apparent from FIGS. 1 and 2 and the like, the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11 is positioned horizontally and has a horizontal portion 23 on the conveyance start end side for receiving the article W loaded from the loading means 7. A horizontal portion 24 on the conveyance end side that is positioned horizontally at a position higher than the horizontal portion 23 and supplies the article W to the conveyance start end portion of the relay conveyance device 4 downstream in the conveyance direction, and the upper and lower horizontal portions 23, 24 And an inclination portion 25 for posture correction that is positioned in an inclined shape that inclines upward in the conveyance direction of the conveyance means 6.

  That is, the transport surface portion 21 has a lower horizontal portion 23, an upper horizontal portion 24, and an inclined portion 25 therebetween, on the forward path surface side that is the upper portion. Then, the planar inclined portion 25 of the conveying surface portion 21 slides the article W by its own weight until it abuts against the partition projection 22 on the side opposite to the conveying direction facing the article W on the upper surface which is the surface, The posture of the article W is fixed, that is, for example, the posture (partition) in which one end portion (one side portion) in the longitudinal direction of the article W is in contact with the longitudinal partition projection 22 and is located along the partition projection 22 (A posture parallel to the protrusion 22).

  The lower end side of the inclined portion 25 has an arc shape with a relatively large radius of curvature and is connected to the lower horizontal portion 23. Similarly, the upper end side of the inclined portion 25 has an arc shape with a relatively large radius of curvature. And is connected to the upper horizontal portion 24.

  The inclined portion 25 is inclined upward in the transport direction at a predetermined inclination angle α with respect to the horizontal direction. The inclination angle α is an acute angle, for example, 35 degrees to 40 degrees, and preferably approximately 38. Degree.

  As shown in FIG. 2, an optical system partition detection unit 31 that detects a partition projection 22 of the transport belt 11 is provided at the transport start end of the transport unit 6. An encoder 32 which is a rotation detection unit of an optical system that detects the rotation of the driving roller 13 is provided at the conveyance end portion of the conveyance unit 6.

  Then, detection signals from the partition detection means 31 and the encoder 32 are transmitted to the control means 33, and the control means 33 controls the input means 7 based on the detection signals. In other words, the control means 33 transmits an input command to the input means 7 at different timings according to the characteristics (for example, weight) of the article W while constantly grasping the position of the partition projection 22 of the conveyor belt 11.

  Based on the control by the control means 33, the throwing means 7 sends the article W to a desired position on the upper surface of the horizontal portion 23 of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11 of the conveyance means 6 at different timings depending on the characteristics (for example, weight) of the article W. Will be introduced sequentially. In other words, the throwing means 7 throws the article W into a position corresponding to the characteristics of the article W on the upper surface of the horizontal portion 23 of the transport surface portion 21 of the transport body 11 based on the control by the control means 33.

  As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 and the like, the throwing means 7 is constituted by a plurality of conveyors arranged in a straight line in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the transport means 6 in a plan view, for example.

  Specifically, the loading means 7 is located at the conveyance start end and is conveyed at the start end conveyor (loading conveyor) 41 where the article W is thrown onto the upper surface by the manual operation of the worker X. A terminal conveyor (timing conveyor) 42 to be put on the upper surface of the belt 11 and a plurality of intermediate conveyors 43 positioned between the two conveyors 41 and 42 are provided.

  The starting end conveyor 41 is disposed in the vicinity of the mounting table 45 on which a plurality of articles W are placed. The worker X picks up the articles W on the mounting table 45 one by one by hand and starts the conveyor 41. Placed on the transfer surface 41a.

  The transport surface 41a is positioned in an inclined shape that inclines downward from one end in the width direction toward the other end in the width direction. For this reason, the article W placed on the conveyance surface 41a is in a state where one end portion along the conveyance direction of the start conveyor 41 (longitudinal direction of the article W) is in contact with a contact plate (not shown). As a result, one end portion of the article W along the longitudinal direction moves on the reference straight line L on one end side in the width direction of the loading means 7 from the conveyance start end portion to the conveyance end portion. That is, the reference straight line L is a conveyance reference of the article W on the conveyance surface of the input unit 7.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the end conveyor 42 has a plurality of endless round belts 46 that carry the article W on the upper surface thereof. The round belt 46 is stretched around one driving roller 48 and a plurality of driven rollers 49 that are installed between a pair of plate-like conveyor frames 47. When the driving roller 48 is rotated by the power from the driving motor 50 as driving means, the round belt 46 rotates in a predetermined direction, and the article W on the round belt 46 is conveyed in the conveying direction by this rotation. It is put on the upper surface of the belt 11.

  The conveyance termination portion of the termination conveyor 42 is disposed above the widthwise end of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11. That is, in plan view, the conveyance end portion of the end conveyor 42 and the end portion in the width direction of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11 overlap each other, and the partition protrusion 22 of the conveyance belt 11 overlaps the conveyance end of the end conveyor 42. Move the close position of the part. The driven roller 49 at the conveyance end portion of the end conveyor 42 is located above the widthwise end of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11.

  As shown in FIG. 7, one of the upstream end positions among the plurality of intermediate conveyors 43 is a scanner conveyor 51, and the scanner conveyor 51 has a gantry 52.

  The gantry unit 52 is provided with a barcode reader (not shown) that is an article detection unit that reads a barcode attached to the article W and transmits the read information to the control unit 33.

  In addition, the gantry 52 is an optical that is an article detection means for detecting the height dimension (thickness dimension), width dimension (short direction length dimension), and length dimension (longitudinal length dimension) of the article W. A plurality of system sensors (photoelectric sensors and the like) are provided.

  Then, the control means 33 calculates the volume of the article W based on the detection of these sensors, and determines that the article W is a heavy article when the calculated volume is equal to or larger than a preset set volume. Is less than the set volume, it is determined that the article W is a lightweight object. Further, the control means 33 determines whether the article W is fed into the transport means 6 by the terminal conveyor 42 of the throwing means 7 according to the determination result of whether the article W is heavy or lightweight (for heavy objects). Or timing for lightweight objects).

  For example, ten sensors for detecting the height dimension are arranged in the vertical direction at intervals of 5 mm. Only the top sensor detects a height abnormality as + α. The sensor for detecting the width dimension detects, for example, the width dimension of the article W at two places on the left and right in the vertical direction. The sensor for length division detection detects, for example, front and rear at two locations in the vertical direction when the measurement trigger sensor is turned on.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7, among the plurality of intermediate conveyors 43, one near the central position in the transport direction is a reject conveyor 55. The reject conveyor 55 has a transport end side on the horizontal axis on the transport start end side. It has a rotation conveyance section 56 that rotates up and down so as to move up and down.

  The rotation conveyance unit 56 is, for example, of a belt conveyor type, and conveys normal articles W and supplies them to the downstream intermediate conveyor 43, and conveys NG articles that are abnormal articles W obliquely downward. It can be turned up and down between the inclined state supplied to the NG product conveying means 60.

  The NG product rejected by the reject conveyor 55 is, for example, a non-standard size, an unread barcode, an unscheduled product, or the like. The NG product is transported to a position near the mounting table 45 by the NG product transport means 60.

  On the other hand, the sorting apparatus 3 includes a transport sorting unit 61 that sorts the articles W while transporting the articles W, and a stacking unit 62 that stacks the articles W sorted by the transport sorting unit 61.

  In addition, the relay conveyance device 4 includes a linear first conveyance unit 65 that receives and conveys the article W from the horizontal portion 24 of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11 of the conveyance unit 6, and the first conveyance unit 65 An arc-shaped second conveyance unit 66 that receives and conveys the article W, and a third conveyance unit 67 that receives the article W from the second conveyance unit 66, conveys it, and supplies it to the conveyance sorting unit 61 are provided. .

  The first transport unit 65 includes, for example, a roller conveyor having rollers that are inclined with respect to the transport direction in plan view, and widens the one side while transporting the article W.

  Next, the operation of the transport device 2 of the sorting system 1 will be described.

  As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, for example, the article W is a heavy article, and the control means 33 determines that the article W to be loaded next to the conveying means 6 is a heavy article. On the other hand, the end conveyor 42 of the feeding means 7 is controlled by the control means 33 based on a desired position (upper surface of the horizontal portion 23 of the conveying surface portion 21 of the conveying belt 11 so that the heavy object does not hit the partitioning protrusion 22 ( At the center position between the partition projections 22 adjacent to each other in the transport direction. For this reason, the article W, which is a heavy object, does not collide with the partitioning protrusion 22 immediately after being loaded by the terminal conveyor 42.

  At the time of this insertion, the article W is slightly rotated by the force received from the moving conveyance surface portion 21 and the posture is collapsed. For example, the article W takes an oblique posture with respect to the partition projection 22.

  After that, the article W is on the upper surface of the inclined portion 25 of the conveying surface portion 21 of the conveying belt 11 until one side portion which is one end portion on the side opposite to the conveying direction comes into contact with the dividing protrusion 22 along the dividing protrusion 22. It slides under its own weight and assumes a constant posture parallel to the partition projection 22. Further, since the distances A between the adjacent partition projections 22 are all equal, the distance between the articles W adjacent to each other in the transport direction is constant.

  Next, the article W is carried out from the transport means 6 to the relay transport apparatus 4 while maintaining a constant distance between the adjacent articles W in a constant posture, and the first transport section 65 of the relay transport apparatus 4 is used. And then fed to the sorting device 3 and sorted by the sorting device 3 for each sorting destination.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, for example, the article W is a lightweight article, and the control means 33 determines that the article W to be next loaded into the conveying means 6 is a lightweight article. In this case, the terminal conveyor 42 of the feeding means 7 is controlled to a desired position on the upper surface of the horizontal portion 23 of the conveying surface portion 21 of the conveying belt 11 so that the lightweight object is applied to the partition protrusion 22 based on the control by the control means 33. (Position near the partition projection 22 on the side opposite to the conveyance direction). For this reason, immediately after the loading by the end conveyor 42, the article W, which is a lightweight object, comes into contact with the partition projection 22 on the side opposite to the conveyance direction, and thus the article W is rotated by the force received from the conveyance surface section 21 being moved. Is prevented.

  At the time of the charging, the article W, which is a light article, loses its posture due to contact with the partition projection 22 and may be inclined with respect to the partition projection 22, for example.

  However, in this case as well as the heavy goods, the posture of the article W is corrected at the inclined portion 25 of the conveyance surface portion 21 of the conveyance belt 11 to be in a constant posture parallel to the partition projection 22 and at the same time. The distance between the matching articles W is constant.

  Next, the light-weight article W is also carried out from the conveyance means 6 to the relay conveyance apparatus 4 while maintaining a constant distance between the adjacent articles W in the same posture as the heavy article, and thereafter Then, it is supplied from the relay transfer device 4 to the sorting device 3 and sorted by the sorting device 3 for each sorting destination.

  Note that the distance a in FIG. 3A is the distance between the partition projection 22 and the reference straight line L at the start of the closing operation of the terminal conveyor 42 for a heavy object. A distance b in FIG. 4A is a distance between the partition projection 22 and the reference straight line L at the start of the closing operation of the terminal conveyor 42 with respect to the lightweight object. There are two types of charging timing according to the characteristics of the article W, for example, the weight, and a> b.

  And according to the said conveying apparatus 2, the conveyance surface part 21 of the conveying belt 11 of the conveying means 6 slides the articles | goods W on its own weight until it contacts the partition protrusion 22 along this partition protrusion 22, and becomes a fixed attitude | position. Since the inclined portion 25 is inclined, the article W can be aligned in a certain posture while being conveyed in the conveying direction, and the distance between the articles W adjacent to each other in the conveying direction is also equalized to a certain distance (constant pitch). Thus, for example, downstream sorting operations can be performed appropriately.

  Further, based on a detection signal from a sensor which is an article detection means for detecting the article W being conveyed by the input means 7, it is determined whether the article W is a heavy object or a light object, and an input timing corresponding thereto is determined. Control means 33 for determining the weight of the loading means 7 based on the control by the control means 33 so that when the article W is a heavy object, the horizontal part is not applied to the partition projection 22. Since it is put on the upper surface of 23, it is possible to prevent the heavy load immediately after being thrown into the partition projection 22 and damaging the partition projection 22.

  Furthermore, when the article W is a light article based on the control by the control means 33, the throwing means 7 throws the lightweight article onto the upper surface of the horizontal portion 23 so as to hit the partition projection 22, so It is possible to prevent the lightweight object from being largely rotated by the force received from the conveyance surface portion 21, for example, 90 degrees or more.

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which the two input units 7 are disposed on the side of the conveying unit 6 has been described. However, the number of the input units 7 is arbitrary, for example, one or three or more. But you can.

  Further, the inclined portion 25 of the transport surface portion 21 of the transport means 6 is not necessarily flat, and may be, for example, a slightly curved surface.

  Further, the loading means 7 is not limited to those having different loading timings depending on the weight of the article W as article characteristics. For example, those having different loading timings depending on the shape or material of the article W may be used.

  Further, the control means 33 is not limited to determining whether the article W is a heavy article or a lightweight article from the calculated volume (article size) based on the detection of the sensor. For example, the article W may be identified to determine whether the article W is heavy or light from the corresponding registered merchandise information.

  Further, for example, a weight measuring means for measuring the weight of the article W being conveyed by the throwing means 7 is provided, and the control means 33 determines that the article W is a heavy article when the measured weight is equal to or greater than the set weight. However, when the measured weight is less than the set weight, it may be determined that the article W is a lightweight object.

  Further, for example, a configuration in which a shape detection unit that detects the shape of the article W is provided in the gantry 52 of the input unit 7 may be used.

  Furthermore, the inclined portion 25 of the conveying surface portion 21 of the conveying means 6 is inclined so as to incline upward in the conveying direction, and the article W abuts against the partition protrusion 22 on the side opposite to the conveying direction (upstream side) from the article W. The article W is not limited to a fixed attitude by sliding the article W, for example, the article W is divided in the form of a slope inclined downward toward the conveyance direction on the conveyance direction side (downstream side) of the article W. For example, the article W may be slid until it comes into contact with the protrusion 22 to make the article W have a fixed attitude.

2 Conveying device 6 Conveying means 7 Loading means
11 Conveyor belt that is a carrier
21 Transport surface
22 Partition projection
23 Horizontal part
25 Inclined part W Goods

Claims (5)

A transport means including a transport body for transporting the article on the upper surface;
A loading means for loading an article on the upper surface of the carrier,
The carrier is
A conveyance surface portion for placing the article on the upper surface and conveying the article in the conveyance direction;
A plurality of partitioning protrusions that project from the transporting surface part, are positioned at an interval in the transporting direction, and partition articles adjacent to each other in the transporting direction;
The conveying device includes an inclined portion having an inclined shape that slides an article until it abuts against the partitioning projection to make the article have a fixed attitude. The conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the loading unit loads the article into a position corresponding to the characteristic of the article on the upper surface of the conveyance body. When the article is a heavy article, the throwing means throws the heavy article onto the upper surface of the transport body so as not to hit the partition projection, and when the article is a lightweight article, The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the transfer device is placed on the upper surface of the transfer body so as to be in contact with the transfer device. The transport surface portion of the transport body of the transport means has a horizontal horizontal portion that receives articles thrown from the throwing means,
When the article is a heavy article, the throwing means puts the heavy article on the upper surface of the horizontal portion so as not to hit the partition projection, and when the article is a lightweight article, The conveying device according to claim 3, wherein the conveying device is placed on an upper surface of the horizontal portion so as to be in contact with a portion. The conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the inclined portion of the conveying surface portion of the conveying member of the conveying means is inclined so as to incline upward in the conveying direction.

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