JPH07101494A - Defective cap-rejecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a defective cap-rejecting device for which the judging precision of an inspecting device to judge whether a cap is accetable or not has been improved, and at the same time, which can avoid the decrease in the working ratio due to the operation stop when a defective cap is generated, and in addition, is suitable as an auxiliary mechanism for a cap feeding device to a capper in a clean booth. CONSTITUTION:For a cap feeding device being equipped with a cap sorter to align caps 14 and a chute 4 to carry the caps which are aligned by the cap sorter, a vertical form dropping part 8 is formed on the path of the chute. At the same time, an inspecting device 9 which judges whether or not the cap being dropping in the dropping part is acceptable, and a sensor to detect the operation timing of the inspecting device are provided. In addition, on the downstream side of the inspecting device, a rejecting device 10 which rejects a defective cap from the chute on the basis of an output from the inspecting device is arranged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rejecting device for removing a defective cap such as a deformed cap or a different type cap contained in a cap supplied from a cap sorter to a capper from a chute.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A defective cap such as a deformed cap, a missing packing, or a different cap may be mixed in a cap supplied from a cap sorter. Such mixing of a defective cap not only impairs normal capping but also causes clogging of the chute. In order to deal with this, there has been known an inspection device for determining the quality of a cap conveyed in a chute (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-114258). However, in this conventional technology, since the caps lined up in the chute in a continuously clogged state are sequentially inspected, the front and rear caps are partially overlapped with each other for accurate shape recognition. It was hindered, which could lead to misjudgment. Also, when a bad cap occurs, the capper had to be stopped and the bad cap had to be removed. However, since the removal work is performed in the clean booth, it is necessary to re-sterilize the inside of the clean booth after the work, so that there is a drawback that the operation rate of the line is significantly reduced.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. An object of the present invention is to improve the determination accuracy of the inspection device and to improve the operation when a defective cap is generated. An object of the present invention is to provide a reject device for a defective cap, which avoids a decrease in operating rate due to stoppage and is also suitable as an auxiliary mechanism of the cap supply device for the capper in the clean booth.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a cap supply device including a cap sorter for aligning caps and a chute for conveying the caps aligned by the cap sorter, wherein a vertical shape is provided in a path of the chute. An inspection device is provided that forms a drop portion and determines whether the cap is falling, and a sensor that detects the operation timing of the inspection device. The inspection device is provided downstream of the inspection device. It is characterized in that a reject device is provided for removing the defective cap from the chute based on the output from the device.

[0005]

Operation: The inspection device determines whether the cap is good or bad.
Since the vertical drop part formed in the path of the chute is applied to the cap that is falling, the overlap between the front and rear caps is significantly reduced, resulting in less erroneous judgment based on overlap as in the past. Therefore, the determination accuracy is improved. In addition, since defective caps are automatically removed in the transportation route to the capper, etc., the decrease in operating rate due to the operation stop as in the past can be avoided, and it is extremely effective as a cap supply means for the capper in the clean booth. is there.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing an applied state of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a cap sorter for aligning and supplying caps, and various cap sorters such as an upright disc type and an inclined disc type are used. This cap sorter 1 is supported on the floor surface 2 via a support member 3, and in this example, the caps aligned by the cap sorter 1 are arranged in a clean booth downstairs via a chute 4. It is configured to be conveyed to the capper 5. In the figure, 6 is the clean booth wall, and 7 is a cap sterilizer. A vertical drop portion 8 is formed in the conveyance path of the chute 4, and the drop portion 8 has an inspection device 9 and a reject device 10, which will be described later, for making a pass / fail judgment for the cap being dropped. Is provided. Further, on the downstream side of the drop portion 8 of the chute 4, a shortage sensor 11 that detects a shortage of the cap and prompts the supply of the cap, and a full sensor 1 that detects that the cap is full and stops the supply of the cap.
2 are installed. Since the caps are appropriately supplied by these sensors 11 and 12 and the caps are prevented from being clogged in the drop part 8, free fall of the caps in the drop part 8 is guaranteed. As a result, the gap between the caps is expanded during the fall, and the false determination due to the overlapping of the caps is reduced.

Next, the inspection device 9 and the reject device 10 will be described more specifically. 2 is an enlarged front view showing the layout of the inspection device 9 and the reject device 10 arranged in the drop part 8, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the inspection device portion, and FIG. 4 is a transverse view showing the reject device portion. It is a side view. As shown in FIG. 2, the inspection device 9 is arranged so as to face the visible portion 13 provided above the falling portion 8.
As shown in FIG. 3, the inspection device 9 includes a ring light 15 that irradiates the entire bottom surface of the cap 14 while the falling portion 8 is falling, and a CCD camera that forms an image by the reflected light from the bottom surface of the cap 14. 16 is a main element. In the figure, reference numeral 17 denotes a timing sensor having a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion arranged immediately in front of the CCD camera 16 as elements.
The shutter timing of the CCD camera 16, that is, the operation timing of the inspection device 9 is detected based on the beam interruption by the cap 14. This timing sensor 17
As a result, the shutter is released at the timing when the cap 14 is positioned at the substantially center of the screen of the CCD camera 16, and the image data obtained by the CCD camera 16 is transmitted to a controller (not shown) to judge the quality of the cap 14. . In this determination of quality, a reference pixel number corresponding to a normal cap is registered in the controller in advance, and this reference pixel number is compared with the pixel number of image data transmitted from the CCD camera 16, and the difference is determined. If it falls below a preset threshold value, it is determined to be defective.

As shown in FIG. 2, the reject device 10 is arranged on the downstream side of the inspection device 9 and has an air nozzle 18 for removing the defective cap 14 from the chute 4.
And a recovery passageway 19 and a recovery container 20 which are installed so as to face the air nozzle 18 as main elements. The air nozzle 18 is configured to blow out compressed air through opening / closing control of a solenoid valve or the like by the controller at a predetermined timing when the controller determines the defective cap. This air nozzle 18
As shown in FIG. 4, the cap 14 is set to the side of the cap 14, and the compressed air is blown to the side surface of the defective cap 14 at a timing when the defective cap 14 passes, so that the cap 14 is recovered through the recovery passageway 19. It is stored in the container 20.

However, during operation, the drop section 8 is always secured by the functions of the shortage sensor 11 and the full sensor 12 so that the cap 14 can be freely dropped without being clogged. In addition, the inspection device 9 is always in a standby state, and whenever the beam is blocked by the cap 14 that drops the falling part 8, the timing sensor 17 outputs data regarding the shutter timing, and the CCD camera 16 uses the data based on this. Take an image of the bottom of the cap 14. In this case, when the cap 14 is deformed, the path of reflected light from the bottom surface of the cap 14 toward the CCD camera 16 is narrowed by the deformation, so that the number of pixels is reduced accordingly. become. When this image data is transmitted to the controller described above and is determined to be a defective cap, as described above, the compressed air is blown from the air nozzle 18 to the side surface of the defective cap 14 to remove it from the chute 4. To do. Note that, as described above, the overlapping action between the front and rear caps 14 is greatly reduced by the dropping action in the dropping portion 8, and thus more appropriate pass / fail judgment and reject operation can be obtained.

In the above description of the embodiments, an example of a deformed cap was mainly described as an example of a defective cap. However, depending on how the inspection device 9 sets the criterion for judging whether the cap is defective or not, the packing may be dropped. It is also possible to deal with defective caps such as different types of caps. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the rejecting device 10 is arranged in the dropping part 8 is illustrated, but if it is on the downstream side of the inspection device 9 and before the clean booth, it may be installed in an appropriate chute 4 portion. It is possible. Further, the falling portion 8 may be formed in a substantially vertical state, not in a strictly vertical state, and the overlapping between the caps 14 can be eliminated by free fall. Needless to say, the specific configuration of the chute 4 and the like can be changed according to the type and size of the cap 14.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained based on the above constitution. (1) Since the quality of the cap is determined for the vertically falling cap, the overlap between the front and rear caps is significantly reduced, and the determination accuracy is improved. (2) Since the defective cap is automatically removed in the transportation path to the capper or the like, clogging of the chute is reduced, and a decrease in the operating rate due to the operation stop of the capper is avoided. (3) In addition, defective caps are automatically removed from the chute in the transport path before the clean booth, eliminating the need for removal work within the clean booth, which is extremely useful as a cap supply means for cappers in the clean booth. It is valid.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an applied state of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view showing the layout of the inspection device and the reject device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an inspection device portion in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a reject device portion in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cap sorter, 2 ... Floor surface, 3 ... Support member, 4 ... Chute, 5 ... Capper, 6 ... Clean booth wall, 7 ... Cap sterilizer, 8 ... Drop part, 9 ... Inspection device, 10 ... Reject device, 11 ... shortage sensor, 12 ... full sensor,
13 ... Visible part, 14 ... Cap, 15 ... Ring light,
16 ... CCD camera, 17 ... Timing sensor, 18 ...
Air nozzle, 19 ... Collection passage, 20 ... Collection container

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cap sorter for aligning caps,
In a cap supply device equipped with a chute that conveys caps aligned by the cap sorter, a vertical drop part is formed in the path of the chute, and the drop part is judged to be good or bad with respect to the cap being dropped. And a sensor for detecting the operation timing of the inspection device, and a reject device for removing the defective cap from the chute on the downstream side of the inspection device based on the output from the inspection device. Rejection device for defective caps.