JPH02221014A - Parts feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve efficiency by alignedly providing a reverse track in a carry track side part in the feeder of a disc part housed in a bulk state, judging the inside and outside in this side of a reverse track starting point, and selectively reversing parts in a reverse track at the reverse track starting point. CONSTITUTION:A reverse track 6 is arranged along a carry track 2 side part. The track 6, the gradient and also width of which are gradually reduced from the stating point to the terminal, is joined to a carry track 2 in the terminal. And the inside and outside of a part a is judged with a camera 3 at this side of the starting point of the track 2. And on parts requiring reverse, the part a is reversed to the track 6 by selectively actuating an air gun 5. This causes a part reversed moves along the track 6 to be joined to the track 2.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a parts feeder that aligns and supplies parts stored in a hopper in bulk. This relates to a parts feeder that supplies parts in one direction.

[Prior Art] A parts feeder is a device that takes out parts from a hopper that stores parts in bulk by means of vibration, rocking, rotation, etc. and supplies them to a transport track in alignment. If the parts taken out by this device are disc-shaped parts, they are placed on the above-mentioned transport track and pushed out one after another in a line, but the front and back sides of the parts taken out are different.

Therefore, for example, there have already been provided devices that are equipped with a means for selecting and supplying only the parts facing the front side.

To explain this configuration with reference to FIG. 4, the illustrated parts feeder aligns and takes out disc-shaped parts aS a... from a hopper 1 that stores disc-shaped parts in bulk, and extracts them in a spiral shape. Transport truck 2 transports parts a% a...-
Send it out in line. In the middle of this transport track 2, a camera 3 is arranged to determine the front and back sides of the parts aX a... transported on the same track 2, and the l'ffi obtained there
A front or back discrimination signal is output based on the signal from the image element.

Furthermore, an air injection hole 4 is bored in the transport truck 2 on the downstream side of the camera 3, and a high-speed airflow from an air gun 5 is injected from the air injection hole 4. This air gun 5 emits a high-speed air current based on the output signal from the camera 3. In other words, when the camera 3 determines that the part a is on the back side, when the part a passes over the air injection hole 4, a high-speed airflow is emitted from the air gun 5, and the part a on the transport track 2 is moved to the hopper. Jumped to 1.

In this way, the parts aV transported on the transport truck 2
Among a..., the parts a% a... facing the back side are returned to the hopper 1 again, so in the end, only the parts aSa... facing the front side are supplied by the transport truck 2.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional parts feeder as described above, the parts aS led out from the hopper 1 to the transport track 2
Among a..., the parts aS facing the surface a...
Therefore, only about half of the parts taken out from the hopper 1 are taken out, and the rest are returned to the hopper 1. For this reason, parts a1 a・
The disadvantage was that the carrying capacity of the parts feeder was approximately half of the original capacity of the parts feeder.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In other words, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a hopper 1 for storing disc-shaped parts a In a parts feeder consisting of a conveyance track 2 that feeds out in a line, a reversing track 6 is arranged side by side along the conveyance track 2,
The reversing track 6 has a gradient that gradually increases from the starting point to the ending point, and a width that gradually becomes narrower so that it merges with the transport track 2. Before the starting point of the reversing track 6, the front and back sides of the parts on the transport track are formed. A front/back monitoring means is disposed at the starting point of the reversing track 6, and works in conjunction with the front/reverse viewing means to selectively reverse the part from the transport track 2 to the reversing track 8 when the part is on the reverse side. To provide a parts feeder in which a parts reversing means is arranged.

[Function] In the parts feeder according to the present invention, the part a whose back side has been detected by the front and back monitoring means is reversed from the transport track 2 to the -H reversing track 6 by the component reversing means.

Then, this reversing track 6 gradually increases its slope and its width becomes narrower, so that the part a that has been moved to this reversing track 6 will be returned again as shown in FIGS. 3(a) to 3(d). Joins transport truck 2.

Therefore, all of the parts aX a... drawn out from the hopper I are carried out from the transport truck 2 with their faces facing up.

[Example] Next, an example of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

The parts feeder according to the present invention consists of a hopper l and an unloading truck 2, in which parts a are stored in bulk in the hopper l.
The S a...pa are arranged and carried out while being pushed by the IIEI transport truck, and this point is basically the same as the conventional one.

In the present invention, a reversing track 6 is provided in series in the middle of the transport track 2. The reversing track 6 is formed on the side of the transport track 2 and has an inclination of about 45° in the width direction of the transport track 2 at its starting point side. The slope of this reversing track 6 gradually increases as it approaches the end point, and its width gradually becomes narrower.

A camera 3 is arranged in front of the starting point of the reversing track 6, and this allows the parts aX on the transport track 2 to be
The front and back sides of a... are determined. Furthermore, the reversing track 6
An air injection hole 4 is provided on the transport truck 2 at the starting point side of the transport truck 2, and a high-speed airflow from an air gun 5 (shown in FIGS. 2 and 3(a)) is directed through the air injection hole 4 onto the transport truck. sprayed onto the track surface. This air injection hole 4 is provided on the side slightly away from the reversing track 6 from the center of the conveyance track 2, and when the high-speed airflow from the air gun 5 is injected from here, the part a above it is As shown in FIG. 3(a), the state is reversed toward the reversing track 6 from the state shown by the solid line to the state shown by the two-dot chain line.

The air gun 5 is linked with the camera 3, and when it is determined that the part a on the transport track 2 is on the back side, the air gun 5 is activated when the part a is above the air injection hole 4. Then, air is injected from the injection hole 4, and the part a is reversed onto the reversing track 6 as described above.

The width of the reversing track 6 gradually narrows from the starting point to the ending point, and its slope gradually becomes steeper. Therefore, the part a reversed on the reversing track 6 changes from the state shown in FIG. 3(a) to the same figure. As shown in (b), (C) and (d),
It is gradually pushed back toward the transport truck 2 and finally joins the transport truck 2 again.

In addition, in the above explanation, the case where the front side of part a is aligned and transported is explained, but the front and back sides are relative, and the side to be transported with the upper side on the transport truck 2 is conveniently designated as " It was explained as "Table".

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, all of the parts a% a... taken out from the hopper 1 to the transport truck 2 are carried out from the transport truck 2 in a state where they are all face up (or back). This will enable efficient parts supply.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The enlarged perspective cross-sectional views taken along the line A-A in the figure, and FIGS.
A sectional view taken along line D and FIG. 4 are perspective views showing a conventional example. l...Hopper 2...Transportation truck 3...Camera 4...Air injection hole 5...Near gun patent granted
Applicant: Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. Agent: Patent attorney Kazuyoshi Hojo (q) Figure 3 (b) Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a parts feeder consisting of a hopper 1 that stores disk-shaped parts a, a, etc. in bulk, and a transport track 2 that feeds out the parts drawn out from the hopper 1 in a line, the parts are transported along the transport track 2. A reversing track 6 is arranged side by side, and the reversing track 6 has a gradient that gradually increases from the starting point to the ending point, and a width that gradually becomes narrower so as to merge with the transport track 2. Front and back monitoring means for determining whether the parts on the transport track are front or back is disposed in the front, and at the starting point of the reversing track 6, in conjunction with the front and back monitoring means, selectively detects the parts when they are on the back. A parts feeder characterized in that a parts reversing means for reversing parts from a transport track 2 to a reversing track 6 is disposed.