JPH0630653A - Device for storing granular material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately detect an amount of granular material stored in a device for preserving a granular material such as rice in the husk, soybeans or fertilizer. CONSTITUTION:A device for storing granular material is equipped with a container for preserving a granular material. The inner peripheral wall 6 of the container 4 is inclined by a given angle theta and part of the inner peripheral wall 6 is furnished with a filmy pressure-sensitive sensor 8 from the bottom to the top of the wall.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a granular material storage device for storing granular material such as paddy, wheat, soybean, and fertilizer, and more particularly to improvement of a technique for discriminating the capacity of the granular material to be stored.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, paddy mowed with an agricultural combine is temporarily stored in a container mounted on the combine. At that time, there is a margin until the cut rice is full. It is necessary to monitor the storage capacity of the paddy that is stored.

Therefore, conventionally, a granular material accommodating device as shown in FIG. 4 has been used. This granular material storage device
It has a cylindrical container a with a bottom, and a part of the inner peripheral wall b of this container a is configured by attaching pressure sensors c at a plurality of locations (three locations in this example) from the bottom side to the upper side. . This pressure sensor c has a micro switch inside the diaphragm.
(Both are not shown) are arranged, and when the diaphragm is deformed by the load of the granular material d such as paddy contained in the container a, the microswitch is turned on, whereby the granular material to which position the container a is placed. You can see if d is contained.

[0004]

However, in the granular substance accommodating apparatus shown in FIG. 4, since the pressure sensor c is gradually attached to the inner peripheral wall b of the container a, the positional resolution is insufficient, and the granular substance d It is difficult to get a rough guide to when the is full. In order to improve the position resolution, it is sufficient to increase the number of pressure sensors c to be attached. However, since this requires a large number of pressure sensors c, not only the cost increases but also the labor of attachment is required. Also, pressure sensor c
Even if one of them fails, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine whether the pressure sensor c itself is defective or the wiring is defective.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has a high positional resolution even though it is a relatively inexpensive device, until the granules contained in the container are full. It is an object of the present invention to provide a granular substance storage device that can easily be used as a guideline and that can easily determine whether or not the device has failed.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the apparatus for accommodating granules according to the present invention comprises a container for accommodating granules, and the inner peripheral wall of this container is vertically or inclined at a predetermined angle. In addition to being formed, a film-shaped pressure sensor is attached to a part of the inner peripheral wall from the bottom side to the upper side.

[0007]

In the above structure, when the granular material is contained in the container, lateral pressure is applied to the inner peripheral wall of the container and the pressure-sensitive sensor,
In response to this, the portion of the pressure-sensitive sensor in the pressurized state changes from the insulated state to the conductive state. Along with this, the conductive resistance of the pressure-sensitive sensor changes according to the amount of contained granules, and the amount of contained granules is detected from the change in the conductive resistance.

[0008]

EXAMPLE FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a granular material container according to an example of the present invention.

The granule storage device 1 of this embodiment comprises a container 4 for storing the granules 2. The container 4 has a substantially bottomed cylindrical shape, and its inner peripheral wall 6 is formed so as to be inclined by a predetermined angle θ so that the lateral pressure applied by the contained granules 2 is as uniform as possible. This tilt angle θ
Is arbitrarily set depending on the type of the granular material 2 to be stored.

A film-shaped pressure sensitive sensor 8 is attached to a part of the inner peripheral wall 6 of the container 4 from the bottom side to the upper side.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the pressure-sensitive sensor 8 has a pair of film-shaped sheet materials 10a and 10b, and a frame-shaped frame material 12 between the sheet materials 10a and 10b. A space portion 1 is provided inside and surrounded by these.
4 are formed, and the conductive layers 16 and the resistance layers 18 are respectively formed on the facing surfaces of the sheet materials 10a and 10b on the side of the space portion 14, and on the conductive layers 16, a predetermined pitch (for example, The insulating layer 20 is formed every 10 mm). It should be noted that one end side (the left end in FIG. 3) of the pressure-sensitive sensor 8 has a space 14 open to the outside, which allows the pressure-sensitive sensor 8 to be easily deformed with respect to an external pressure. There is.

In the above structure, when the granular material 2 such as paddy is contained in the container 4, lateral pressure is applied to the inner peripheral wall 6 of the container 4 and the pressure-sensitive sensor 8. In response to this, the conductive layer 16 and the resistance layer 18 in the portion where the pressure-sensitive sensor 8 is in the pressurized state and where the insulating layer 20 is not present are brought into contact with each other to change from the insulated state to the conductive state.

Here, if the reference voltage Vref is applied to the conductive layer 16 of the pressure sensitive sensor 8 in advance, the conductive resistance changes depending on the position where the conductive layer 16 and the resistance layer 18 are in contact with each other. By detecting the output voltage obtained through the resistance layer 18, it is possible to know the amount of granules contained. For example, if the number of light emitting elements or the like to be turned on is increased or decreased according to the magnitude of the output voltage, it is possible to easily recognize the amount of accommodation.

Further, since the resistance value of the resistance layer 18 of the pressure sensor 8 has a finite size, it is possible to easily know whether the pressure sensor 8 has a failure. That is, when a short circuit occurs, the resistance value becomes zero, and when a disconnection occurs, the resistance value becomes infinite, so that an abnormality is immediately recognized.

In the above embodiment, the inner peripheral wall 6 of the container 4 for accommodating the granules 2 is provided with an arbitrary inclination angle θ depending on the kind of the granules, but this may be vertical.

[0016]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The granular substance accommodating device according to the present invention has a high position resolution despite having a relatively simple and inexpensive structure, so that the granular substance accommodating device in the container has a guideline until it becomes full. easy. Further, there is an excellent effect that it is possible to easily determine whether or not a failure has occurred.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a granular material storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view of the pressure-sensitive sensor of the apparatus of FIG.

3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional granular material storage device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Granule accommodation device, 2 ... Granules, 4 ... Container, 6 ... Inner peripheral wall, 8 ... Pressure sensitive sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container for accommodating granules is provided, wherein an inner peripheral wall of the container is formed vertically or inclined by a predetermined angle, and a part of the inner peripheral wall extends from the bottom side to the upper side. The granular substance accommodating device characterized in that the pressure-sensitive sensor is attached.