JPH024487A - Sorting apparatus for long size farm product - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sort automatically long size farm products based on their lengths while transporting them by constituting the title apparatus so as to sort the long size farm products based on their lengths with a rail change unit actuated by a contact or noncontact of the long size farm products with a sensing lever. CONSTITUTION:A pair of endless belts 1 and 1, which constitute a transportation path of a sorting apparatus and consist of endless chains, turn around driven by a motor and carries long size farm products P, which are put on supporting members 6, forward in a direction (A) along the transportation path. When the long size farm products P put across the supporting members 6 arrive at a position, where a sensing lever 12 is arranged, accompanied by turnings of the endless belts 1 and 1, come into contact with the sensing lever 12 and actuate it, a rail change unit 30 is actuated linked with this lever 12 and a sorting of the long size farm products P is carried out. The long size farm products P, which are not dropped down to be sorted, pass the rail change unit 30 as they are and are transported further forward.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a sorting machine for long agricultural products, which detects the length of long agricultural products using a sensing lever while conveying the agricultural products along a conveyance path, and sorts the agricultural products by length. This is how it was done.

(Prior art) As a sorter for petals such as chrysanthemums, roses, and carnations, the petals are supported on a support material conveyed through a conveyance path, and the petals are weighed by a weighing means provided in the middle of the conveyance path to obtain a predetermined weight. It is known that the flowers are sorted by weight by rotating the support member downward (in 1987).
3-19226). By the way, in addition to petals, radish,
When long agricultural products such as burdock and rennin are shipped to the market, they are not only sorted by weight as described above, but also sorted by length, but conventionally, such length sorting has been done mostly by hand. It was the actual situation.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, manual work requires a great deal of effort and time, and there is a problem that individual errors are likely to occur.

By the way, as a means for sorting the length of long agricultural products, by providing an optical detection means consisting of a light emitting part and a light receiving part on the conveyance path, it is possible to detect and sort the length of long agricultural products while transporting them. Conceivable. However, optical means are prone to erroneous detection due to noise, are expensive because they require a considerable electrical system, and are difficult to use for general farmers in terms of maintenance and management.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that can easily perform length selection of long agricultural products without using optical means.

(Means for Solving the Problems) For this purpose, the present invention rotatably attaches a support member 6 for horizontally supporting a long agricultural product P to an endless belt 1.1 that rotates on a conveyance path. A sliding member 8 is provided on the supporting member 6 side along a guide rail 21 arranged parallel to the endless band 1°1.
In the sorting machine for long agricultural products P, which transports the long agricultural products P while sliding, there is a length measuring lever located on the side of the conveyance path that includes a sensing lever that touches the end of the long agricultural products and senses the end. In addition, a rail switching section for switching between supporting and non-supporting of the sliding member is provided in a part of the guide rail, and the rail switching section and the sensing lever are interlocked to detect the long agricultural products. touching the lever,
The rail switching section is operated in a non-contact manner to sort out long agricultural products by length.

(Function) In the above configuration, as the endless belt 1.1 rotates, the long agricultural products P suspended horizontally on the support member 6 come into contact with the sensing lever 12. When this is activated, the rail switching unit 30 is activated in conjunction with this lever 12, and the long agricultural products P are sorted, and the long agricultural products P that have not been dropped and sorted pass through the rail switching unit 30 and are further forward. transported to.

(Example 1) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using flowers as an example of agricultural products.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the sorting machine, and Figure 2 is a perspective view of the main parts, where A is the sorting section and B is the flower y arranged on the side of the sorting section A.
! It is a supply part of +P, and the flower 6 on the mounting plate 50 of supply part B
The pipes are transferred one by one to the support material 6 of the sorting section A. Reference numeral 1.1 denotes a pair of left and right endless belts consisting of endless chains that constitute the conveyance path of the sorting section A, and are driven by a motor M to rotate and transfer the flowers placed on the support material 6 to the conveyance path. forward along (
A).

In FIG. 2, 2 is a support rod whose rack is passed over the endless band 1.1, 3 is a mounting plate for attaching the support rod 2 to the check 71,1,
Reference numeral 4 designates a rod-shaped rotating member whose both ends are rotatably attached to the mounting plate 3 and which rotates around its axis.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a support material for the petal P attached to the rotating member 4 so as to protrude rearward with respect to the conveying direction (A), and is formed by bending a wire material such as a steel wire into a substantially ■ shape. , petal P
is horizontally suspended at the deepest part 6a of the support member 6. Pa is the stem of petal P.

7 is a flat plate attached to the end of the rotating member 4; 8 is the flat plate 7;
It is a plate-shaped sliding material that protrudes from the endless strip 1 and slides along the guide rails 21a, 21b arranged parallel to the endless band 1.
By resting on b, the load of the six supporting members is supported, and the supporting member 6 is prevented from rotating downward and the petal P is prevented from falling. 9 is a balance weight.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a length measuring section, which has pillars 17.17 erected on both sides of the transport path, and both ends of which are rotatably attached to the upper part of the pillars 17.17. Conveying direction (
A rotation shaft 11 installed perpendicular to the rotation shaft 1
The lower end of the lever 12 hangs below the deepest part 6a of the supporting member 6, and the lower end contacts the end of the stem Pa. sense this. Reference numeral 18 denotes a fixture for attaching the lever 12 so as to be movable in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 11 and to be detachable. By adjusting the position of the lever 12, the sensing position can be changed. Reference numeral 13 denotes a rod member mounted substantially horizontally on the other end of the rotating shaft 11, and reference numeral 14 denotes a spring member consisting of a coil spring whose upper end is attached to the tip of the rod member 13. Reference numeral 15 denotes a balance weight attached to the rear end of the rod 13, and 16 a stopper that comes into contact with the upper surface of the rod 13 to restrict the range of rotation of the rotation shaft 11.

30 is a rail switching section, 31 is a rotating rod that is pivotally supported by a fulcrum section 32 provided on a frame 36, and the front end of the rotating rod 31 is bent into a substantially fold-back shape to form a movable rail section 33.
This movable rail portion 33 is connected to the guide rail 2.
It is positioned to complement the excised portions 1a and 21b. 37 is a stopper that restricts excessive upward movement of the rotating rod 31. 34 is a rear end formed by bending the rotary rod 31 into a substantially U-shape, and 35 is a balance weight mounted on the upper surface of the rear end 34. Reference numeral 41 denotes a rod-shaped presser member whose tip end is movable toward and away from the upper surface of the rear end portion 34 and whose other end is connected to the lower end of the spring member 14 . It is rotatably supported by a fulcrum portion 42 protruding from. In Fig. 1, reference numeral 51 is a stop plate provided in the supply section B, and when the flower *P is placed on the support material 6, the tip of the petal P is brought into contact with this plate to keep the position of the tip constant. It is for the purpose of

This sorting machine is constructed as described above, and its operation will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

When sorting the petals P, the flowers pp are piled up on the supply part B, and the petals P are placed one by one by hand on the support material 6.
feed on top. The petal P suspended horizontally on the support member 6 is conveyed forward (A) by the rotation of the endless bands 1 and 1, and is transferred to the length measuring section 10.
approaching. Here, if the length of the petal P is long and the end of the stem Pa contacts the lever 12, the lever 12 will be pushed by this and rotate forward (c) (see line tji in Figure 2). The rotation shaft 11 rotates clockwise (d). Then, the tip of the rod 13 rotates upward, tilting the presser 41 via the spring 14, and presses the rear end 34 downward with the tip of the rod 13, as shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b). ), due to this pressing force and the weight of the weight 35, the rotating rod 31 rotates counterclockwise around the fulcrum 32 in FIG. 3(b) due to the load received from the sliding member 8, and the guide rail 21
The sliding member 8 transferred from a to the movable rail part 33 falls off from the movable rail part 33, and the supporting member 6 rotates downward to prevent the flower P from falling. Therefore, in this state, the sliding member 8 slides on the movable rail portion 33,
From now on, transfer to the guide rail 21b and transport the flowers P directly to the front (A). A stopper 45 prevents the rotary rod 31 from rotating clockwise.

In addition, when the stem pa of the petal P is short and its end does not touch the lever 12, the holding member 41 maintains the upper position, and when the sliding member 8 is placed on the movable rail portion 33, the rotating rod is moved by the load. 31 rotates counterclockwise (see chain line in Figure 4), the sliding member 8 cannot transfer from the movable rail portion 33 to the guide rail 21b, and falls off from the movable rail portion 33, and the supporting member 6 rotates downward. However, the petal P falls. By arranging a plurality of such length measuring sections 10 and switching sections 30 in sequence from the upstream side to the downstream side of the conveyance path, changing the detection length by adjusting the position of the lever 12, etc., the petal P can be adjusted. can be sorted into multiple stages according to their length.

In addition, by removing the lever 12 from the rotation shaft 11,
After making sure that the length measuring section 10 does not operate, a weight 35 with a desired weight is set on the pin 46 as shown in FIG. If the rotary rod 31 is rotated downward and the sliding member 8 falls off when the load is applied, the same weight sorting as in the conventional device can be performed.

Further, in the above means, the operation of the lever 12 is controlled by the spring member 14.
By transmitting the signal to the rail switching section 30 via the spring material 14, even if the object to be measured is thick, such as a radish or lentil, and the lever 12 rotates excessively, the excessive movement will be prevented by the spring material 14. This is absorbed by the elongation of the length measuring section 1.0 and the operating parts of the switching section 30 so that no unreasonable load is applied.

(Embodiment 2) The sorting machine according to the present invention can be used in various ways. For example, as shown briefly in FIG. 6, there are four sorting means (A) along the conveyance path.

B, C, D) are provided, and the first sorting means A measures both length and weight to sort out those with a predetermined weight or more (60 kg or more) and less than a predetermined length (70 cm or less), and the second and subsequent sorting means In the sorting means B-D, only the weight is measured, and the weights of 60 kg or more, 70 cm or more, and 53 to
60kg, +r sorting may be performed on 35-53. Note that each of the above numerical values is an exemplary numerical value.

Measurement of length and weight by sorting means A is possible by the means shown in FIG. That is, a weight 35 corresponding to 60 kg is set on the pin 46. If an object weighing 60 kg or more and having a lid length of 70 cm or less passes by in this state, the stem Pa will be too short to hit the lever, and therefore, as explained with reference to FIG. The rotating rod 31 rotates downward due to the load of the sliding member 8, and the sliding member 8 falls off, and its flower %p is 60.
Items weighing more than 1 kg and less than 70 cm are sorted by falling.

Further, the weight sorting in the sorting means B-D can be easily performed by conventional means or the means shown in FIG.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the rail switching section 40, in which the weight 35 described above does not exist. As shown in FIG. 5A, when the stem Pa does not touch the lever 12 and the presser member 41 is floating upward, the rotating rod 31
The counterclockwise rotation of is prevented by the stopper 48, and the sliding member 8 slides on the movable rail portion 33, and the guide rail 2
You can switch to 1b. Also, stem P on lever 12
When the rotary rod 31 is hit, the rear end of the rotary rod 31 is pushed downward by the holding member 41 and rotates counterclockwise, as shown in FIG. Unable to transfer to 33 and falls. As described above, various design changes can be made to the specific structure of the rail switching section.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention is such that a support member for horizontally supporting a long agricultural product is rotatably attached to an endless belt that rotates on a conveyance path, and is arranged parallel to the endless belt. In a sorting machine for long agricultural products, the long agricultural products are conveyed while sliding a sliding member provided on the supporting material side along a guide rail, and the ends of the long agricultural products are placed on the side of the conveyance path. A length measuring section consisting of a sensing lever that touches the end of the guide rail and detects the end thereof is provided, and a rail switching section that switches between supporting and non-supporting the sliding member is provided on a part of the guide rail, and the rail switching section and The above-mentioned sensing levers are connected in an interlocking manner (by contact or non-contact of the long agricultural products with the sensing lever, the rail switching section is operated to sort the long agricultural products by length), so that the long agricultural products are transported. While conveying along the path, it is possible to automatically sort by length.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show an embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a length sorter for long agricultural products, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the length measuring section and rail switching section, and Fig. 3 (a) , (b) and 4 are rear and side views explaining the operation of the rail switching section, and 5.
The figure is a side view of the rail switching section of another embodiment, FIG. 6 is a side view of still another embodiment, FIG. 7 is a partial side view, and FIG.
) and (b) are side views of a rail switching section of still another embodiment. P...Long agricultural products 1...Endless band 6...Supporting material...Sliding material O...Length measuring section 2...Sensing lever la, 21b...Guide rail 0.40...・Rail switching section 3...Movable rail section Applicant: Muto Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. Agent: Patent attorney: Toshiyuki Takamatsu

Claims (1)

[Claims] A supporting material for horizontally supporting long agricultural products is rotatably attached to an endless belt that rotates on a conveyance path, and a supporting material is installed on the supporting material side along a guide rail arranged parallel to this endless belt. A sorting machine for long agricultural products is configured to transport long agricultural products while sliding a sliding material, which comprises a sensing lever located on the side of the conveyance path that hits an end of the long agricultural product and senses the end. In addition to providing a length measuring section, a rail switching section for switching between supporting and non-supporting of the sliding material is provided in a part of the guide rail, and the rail switching section and the sensing lever are connected so as to be interlocked, so that long agricultural products can be measured. A sorting machine for long agricultural products, characterized in that the rail switching section is actuated by contact or non-contact with the sensing lever to sort the long agricultural products by length.