JPH04303330A - Tier picking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a picked material from rolling sideward at the time of picking up the upper tier of materials in the rearmost row. CONSTITUTION:A front stopper to receive picked materials 1 is divided into a lower front stopper 2 and an upper front stopper 22. Also, when materials 1 in the rearmost row is picked up, the lift state thereof is detected and the upper front stopper 22 is pushed by an advance and retreat drive mechanism 23, thereby properly shifting the trailing end row of the picked materials 1 from a pickup roller 3 to carriage rollers 4 and so forth for stable material transfer.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention is directed to sequentially picking up boxes and other rectangular blocks (hereinafter referred to as materials to be picked up) of various stacked articles starting from the upper layer and transporting them to a predetermined transport location. The present invention relates to a layer picking device for transporting materials, and more particularly to a layer picking device provided with a mechanism for avoiding overturning of the material to be picked up.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional layer picking device, a plurality of materials 1 to be picked up are stacked in multiple layers on a pallet (not shown) as shown in FIG. The pallet is set at a predetermined height position by the lifting operation of the pallet (not shown).

[0003] A structural frame 2 is disposed whose tip side is inclined upward in the conveying direction from the right side end face in the drawing of the material 1 to be picked up in the upper layer, that is, from the front side position, and furthermore, one piece of high friction material is attached to the structural frame 2. A pickup roller 3 and a plurality of carriage rollers 4, . . . are rotatably supported at predetermined intervals. Among them, the pickup roller 3 is set at the lowest position, and then several carriage rollers 4,... are arranged so as to have upwardly inclined conveyance surfaces, and after that, an appropriate number of carriage rollers 4,... They are arranged so as to have a flat conveying surface. The reason why the upwardly inclined conveying surface is provided is to reduce the impact force on the stored items inside the picked-up material that occurs when the picked-up material 1 is transferred from the pickup roller 3 to the carriage roller 4 after being picked up.

Further, driving sprockets 5 are provided at predetermined intervals on both sides of the material 1 to be picked up in the upper layer.
and a driven sprocket 6 are arranged, and a drive chain 7 that engages with the tip of the structural frame 2 is stretched between these sprockets 5 and 6, and the drive chain 7 is moved in the direction of the arrow (A) by the rotation of the drive motor 8. By moving, the entire structural frame 2, that is, the pickup roller 3 and the carriage roller 4, .

A driven sprocket 9 is attached to one end of the pickup roller 3, and the driven sprocket 9 is connected to the driven sprocket 9 via a drive chain 10 from a drive device (not shown).
By rotating the pickup roller 3, the
The carriage rollers 4, . . . rotate in the direction of the arrow A' through drive belts from a drive device (not shown).

Further, a front stopper 12 for receiving the upper layer material 1 is disposed on the back side of the upper layer material 1 directly facing the pickup roller 3. This front stopper 11 is held down by a pressing cylinder 12 held by a structural frame (not shown).

Therefore, according to the above configuration, FIG.
As shown in (a), the pickup roller 3 and carriage rollers 4, ... are rotated in the directions of the arrows A and A', respectively, and in this state, when the drive motor 8 is driven to rotate, the drive chain 7 is rotated in the direction of the arrow (a). Accordingly, each roller 3, 4, . At this time, since the surface of the pickup roller 3 is made of a high-friction material, the pickup roller 3 generates a frictional force that lifts the picked-up material 1 upward. As a result, Figure 3 (b
), the material 1 to be picked up is lifted, and the bottom of the material 1 to be picked up is placed on the top of the pickup roller 3. Furthermore, each roller 3, 4,... is shown in the figure (
When moving forward in the b) direction, the material 1 to be picked up gradually advances from the pickup roller 3 on the carriage inclined conveyance surface, and is then conveyed to a predetermined location through the carriage flat conveyance surface. Thereafter, the material 1 to be picked up is sequentially and repeatedly conveyed by the pickup roller 3 and the carriage roller 4, . Then, as shown in FIG. 3(c), when the last row of the material to be carried 1 rides on the top of the pickup roller 3, and further reaches the position where it rides on the top of the carriage rollers 4, which form the inclined conveyance surface, the pickup roller 3 and carriage rollers 4, . . . stop their forward movement, and now reversely move backward in the direction shown in FIG. 3(c), as shown in FIG. 3(d).

[0008]

However, in the layer picking device as described above, when the pickup roller 3 and the carriage roller 4, etc. stop, the center of gravity shifts due to the aspect ratio and inclination of the material 1 to be picked up Furthermore, since the pick-up roller 3, which is a high-friction body, is rotating in the direction A in the drawing, the material 1 to be picked up is inclined to the left in the drawing and leans against the front side inclined portion of the front stopper 11. As a result, in this state, each roller 3, 4
,... retreat in the direction (c) shown in the figure, the inclination becomes increasingly large due to the reaction force due to the frictional force with the pickup roller 3 (see Fig. 3 (d)), and eventually as shown in Fig. 3 (d) There are problems with it rolling over and causing pickup mistakes.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and can reliably prevent the material to be picked up from rolling over, thereby eliminating the occurrence of pick-up errors and, for example, preventing damage to items stored inside the material to be picked up. It is an object of the present invention to provide a layer picking device that obtains.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention picks up the materials to be picked up in the upper layer stacked on a mounting table with a pickup roller, and also uses an inclined conveyance surface and a flat conveyance surface. In a layer picking device that transports a layer to a predetermined transport location via a carriage roller that forms a surface, a lower front stopper and an upper front stopper that are arranged in a direction directly facing the pickup roller and are divided into upper and lower halves; comprising: an inclined portion formed on the front side of the upper front stopper; a forward/backward drive mechanism for driving the upper front stopper forward and backward; and a detection means for detecting a lifted state of the picked-up material that occurs when picked up by the pickup roller; In response to a detection signal from the detection means, the advancement/retraction drive mechanism pushes out the upper front stopper in the forward direction and pushes the material to be picked up from the pickup roller to the carriage roller.

[0011]

[Operation] Therefore, the present invention takes the above measures so that when the pickup roller and the plurality of carriage rollers stop, the front side of the material to be picked up in the last row is lifted up and rests against the slope of the upper front stopper. The lifted state of the material to be picked up is detected. Then, this detection signal is used to operate the advance/retreat drive mechanism to advance the upper front stopper a predetermined distance, so that the center of gravity shifts due to the aspect ratio and inclination of the material to be picked up, and the pickup roller rotates in the direction A in the figure. Even when the material is being picked up, the material to be picked up is stably transferred from the pickup roller to the carriage roller and is conveyed in a completely erect state, thereby eliminating pick-up errors.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. Since the device of the present invention has almost the same configuration as the conventional one, the same parts as in FIGS. 2 and 3 are given the same reference numerals, and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, we will explain the different components compared to the conventional one. I will explain about it.

That is, the device of the present invention has a configuration in which the conventional front stopper 12 is divided into upper and lower halves, consisting of a lower front stopper 21 and an upper front stopper 22 having an inclined portion 22a on the front side, and a pick-up by the pickup roller 3. A detecting means is provided for detecting the lifted state of the picked-up material 1 at the time of the pick-up material 1, and when receiving a lifting detection signal of the picked-up material from the detection means, the upper front stopper 22 is advanced a predetermined distance to move the picked-up material 1 forward. This includes the provision of a forward/backward drive mechanism 23 that guides the pickup roller 3 to the carriage roller 4. Note that the detection means can be realized, for example, by optically detecting that the material to be picked up 1 has come into contact with the inclined portion 22a of the upper front stopper 22.

Next, the operation of the apparatus configured as above will be explained. Now, as shown in FIG. 1(a), when the pickup roller 3 and the carriage rollers 4, . . . move forward in the direction shown in FIG. It collides with the front lower part of material 1. At this time, since the pickup roller 3 is made of a high-friction material, the material 1 to be picked up is lifted up and rides on the upper part of the pickup roller 3 as shown in FIG. The subsequent rollers 4,...
The vehicle is then transferred to a designated transport location.

As described above, the material 1 to be picked up is sequentially picked up as the pickup roller 3 and carriage roller 4 move forward. Then, as shown in FIG. 1(c), the pick-up roller 3 picks up the material to be picked up 1 in the last row. At this time, the pick-up roller 3 lifts the front side of the material to be picked up 1 in the same manner as described above, so that the bottom enter. At this time,
The center of gravity of the material 1 to be picked up moves according to its aspect ratio, inclination, etc., and it is inclined as shown in FIG. 3(c) and comes into contact with the inclined portion 22a of the upper front stopper 22. As a result, if a microswitch or a light emitting/receiving element is installed on the inclined portion 22a of the upper front stopper 22, for example, the contact state of the picked-up material 1, that is, the lifted state of the picked-up material 1 can be detected. Here, when the lifted state of the material 1 to be picked up is detected, the advance/retreat drive mechanism 23 receives the detection signal and advances the upper front stopper in the direction of the arrow (e) shown in the figure. As a result, the material to be picked up 1 is as shown in FIG.
As shown in (d), the conveyance surface changes from the inclined conveyance surface to the flat conveyance surface, and stops after traveling a suitable distance. At this time,
For example, if the advance/retreat drive mechanism 23 is configured to stop in synchronization with the stop of the pickup roller 3, etc., and to move backward in synchronization with the retreat of the pickup roller 3, the material 1 to be picked up can be placed on a flat conveyance surface without overturning. The transition is stable and pickup mistakes can be eliminated.

Therefore, according to the configuration of the embodiment as described above, the material 1 to be picked up is lifted by the pickup roller 3 to the inclined portion 22a of the upper front stopper 22.
When it comes into contact with the material 1 to be picked up, the lifting state of the material 1 to be picked up is detected and the forward/backward drive mechanism 23 moves the upper front stopper 2
2 is pushed forward, so the pickup roller 3
The rotation in the A direction and the frictional force act in directions that promote each other, and the material to be picked up 1 can be reliably transferred from the pickup roller 3 to the carriage rollers 4,...
Moreover, by pushing it forward to a flat conveyance surface, it is possible to stably convey it to a predetermined conveyance position while maintaining a completely erected state (FIG. 1e). Therefore, even if a plurality of items are stored inside the material to be picked up 1, it can be stably transported without being damaged, and the transport work can proceed smoothly. Note that the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[0017]

As explained above, according to the present invention, layer picking can reliably prevent the material to be picked up from rolling over, eliminate occurrence of pick-up mistakes, and prevent damage to items stored inside the material to be picked up. equipment can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an operation sequence of an embodiment of a layer picking device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of a conventional general layer picking device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation order of a conventional layer picking device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1... material to be picked up, 3... pickup roller, 4...
Carriage roller, 7... Drive chain, 8... Drive motor, 9... Driven sprocket, 10... Drive chain, 21...
Lower front stopper, 22... Upper front stopper, 22a...
Inclined portion, 23...advance/retreat drive mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: The upper layer of materials to be picked up stacked on a mounting table is picked up by a pickup roller, and is transported to a predetermined location via a carriage roller that forms an inclined transport surface and a flat transport surface. In the conveying layer picking device, a lower front stopper and an upper front stopper divided into upper and lower halves are arranged in a direction directly facing the pickup roller, and an inclined part formed on the front side of the upper front stopper; A forward/backward drive mechanism for driving the upper front stopper forward and backward; and a detection means for detecting a lifting state of the material to be picked up that occurs when picked up by the pickup roller; A layer picking device characterized in that the upper front stopper is pushed out in a forward direction to push the material to be picked up from a pickup roller to a carriage roller.