JPH05180687A - Combination metering device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable an amount of commodities on a dispersion supplier to be stable in a combination metering device which disperses and supplies the commodities which are supplied to the dispersion supplier by a commodity carrying-in device to a plurality of metering parts and then performs combinational delivery of the metered commodities which are metered at each metering part based on the metering value. CONSTITUTION:A first level detector circuit 25 drives a commodity carrying-in conveyer 1 for carrying in commodities when a state where a height of the commodities on a dispersion feeder 2 becomes lower than a reference level R continues for TON time and stops driving of the commodity carrying-in conveyer 1 when a state when the reference level R is exceeded continues for TOFF time. A second level detector circuit 27 delays a conveyer speed at the time of next carrying-in of the commodity carrying-in conveyer 1 when the height of commodities immediately after the conveyer stop exceeds an upper-limit level RU and increases conveyer speed at the time of next carrying-in when a lower-limit level RL is not exceeded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention disperses and supplies the articles supplied to a dispersion feeder by an article carry-in device to a plurality of weighing sections, and the weighed articles weighed by each weighing section are based on the measured values. The present invention relates to a combination weighing device for combination discharge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to collect articles of different weights into a target quantity,
Conventionally, the combination weighing device shown in FIG. 5 has been used.

In this combination weighing device, the article carry-in conveyor 1 carries the article in the article receiver 1a into the top 2a of the dispersion feeder 2 from the receipt of the carry-in start signal to the receipt of the carry-in stop signal, and a circular umbrella. The distributed feeder 2 has a shape in which the articles received by the top portion 2a are vibrated and dispersed in the radial feeders 3 _{1 to} 3 _n arranged on the outer periphery thereof, and the radial feeders 3 ₁
To 3 _n is to supply the article by nearly a predetermined amount to each of the intermediate hoppers 4 ₁ to 4 _n by the vibration of the predetermined time.

The articles supplied to the intermediate hoppers 4 ₁ to 4 _n are supplied to the weighing hoppers 5 _{1 to} 5 _n and weighed by the respective weighing devices 6 _{1 to} 6 _n .

The combination selection circuit 10 which receives the weighing value signals from the respective weighing devices 6 _{1 to} 6 _n, upon receiving the combination request signal from the packaging machine (not shown) or the like, performs the weighing value combination calculation. A combination within a predetermined target weight range is selected, and the selection signal is output to the weighing hopper opening / closing circuit 11.

Weighing hopper opening / closing circuit 11 receiving the selection signal
Simultaneously opens and closes the weighing hoppers selected for the combination, discharges the articles to the collecting chute 7, and collectively discharges them to the packaging machine or the like.

On the other hand, the intermediate hopper opening / closing circuit 12 supplies the articles from the intermediate hopper corresponding to the empty weighing hopper, and the radiant feeder driving circuit 13 adds a new product from the radiant feeder corresponding to the empty intermediate hopper. Supply the goods.

The distributed feeder drive circuit 14 constantly vibrates the distributed feeder 2 except when all the radiation feeders are stopped for a predetermined time.

When the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder 2 is reduced to a predetermined amount or less while such combination discharge operation is repeatedly performed, articles are replenished from the article carry-in conveyor 1.

As shown in FIG. 6, this decrease in the amount of articles is as follows.
Projector 1 that projects light across the top of a dispersion feeder 2.
5 and a light receiver 16 that receives the light from the light projector 15, and the received light signal is input to the level determination circuit 17.

The level determination circuit 17 shields the light incident on the light receiver 16 from the disturbance, shields the articles being carried in and falls, or receives light from the gap between the articles at the top of the dispersion feeder 2, or the like. It is composed of a retrigger type timer circuit or the like in order to eliminate the influence of light reception due to ambient light, and the light reception state is kept for a predetermined time (T _ON ) after the light receiver 16 changes from the non-light reception state to the light reception state. When it continues, it outputs the carry-in start signal to the article carry-in conveyor 1, and conversely, when the non-light receiving state continues for a predetermined time (T _OFF ) from the time when the light receiving state changes to the non-light receiving state, the carry-in stop signal Stop the output of.

Accordingly, as shown in A of FIG. 7, the article of the dispersion feeder 2 (height), starting at t ₁ which is reduced to projecting light receiving level R, at t ₂ has elapsed further T _ON time, the article the article carrying-by input conveyor 1 is started, the article weight from time t ₃ when increased to R, at t ₄ has passed more T _OFF time, the article conveyed is stopped, the article of the dispersion feeder 2 is substantially projecting The light reception level R is regulated.

However, the replenishment work of the articles to the article receiver 1a of the article carry-in conveyor 1 is often performed manually or by direct connection with the production line, so that the carry amount of the article carry-in conveyor 1 per unit time is large. fluctuate.

When the articles are carried onto the dispersion feeder 2 in the state where the transport amount per unit time is large, a large amount of articles are carried in during the T _OFF time as shown in FIG. 7B. It will be.

When a large number of articles are carried in in such a short time, a large fluctuation in the quantity of the articles appears as a fluctuation in the quantity of the articles discharged from each radiant feeder, so that the quantity is always close to a fixed amount. In a weighing device in which the supply of goods is desired, a highly accurate combination cannot be obtained.

On the other hand, when articles are carried onto the dispersion feeder 2 when the amount of conveyance per unit time is small, the time required to reach the light projecting / receiving level R is shown in FIG. 7C. It becomes extremely long. In this state, the state of lack of articles continues for a long time, and a highly accurate combination cannot be obtained.

In addition, when the amount of goods conveyed by the article carry-in conveyor 1 is further reduced in this insufficient state, the quantity of goods consumed by metering and discharging cannot be kept in time and the operation of the weighing device is stopped. The situation that it must be also occurs.

An object of the present invention is to provide a combination weighing device that solves this problem.

[0019]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the combination weighing device of the present invention has a plurality of weighing units for weighing the articles received by the article receivers with a weighing device, and the weighing units. Among the articles, a combination discharging means for selecting a combination in which a combination of weighing values falls within a target range and discharging the selected article from the weighing section, and an article received at a predetermined receiving place are provided to the plurality of weighing sections. A dispersion feeder that supplies the articles from the corresponding paths to the weighing section from which the articles have been discharged by the combination discharging means, which is dispersed in a plurality of corresponding paths.
The article amount detecting means for detecting the article amount on the dispersion feeder and the detection signal from the article amount detecting means receive the article amount on the dispersion feeder for a predetermined time (T _ON ), the carry-in signal is output after continuing, and the state in which the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder is equal to or more than the reference amount is for a predetermined time (T
_OFF ) First level determining means for outputting a carry-in stop signal after continuing, and acceptance of the distributed feeder between receiving the carry-in start signal from the first level judging means and receiving the carry-in stop signal An article carry-in device for carrying in articles to a place and a detection signal from the article quantity detection means, and the quantity of articles on the dispersion feeder immediately after the article carry-in from the article carry-in device is stopped is equal to the reference quantity. The second level determination means for determining whether or not it is within a predetermined range that has been exceeded, and the determination result of the second level determination means, and in response to the determination result of the second level determination means, the amount of articles immediately after the carry-in is in the direction toward the predetermined range And a carry-in control means for variably controlling the carrying force of the article carry-in device.

[0020]

Since the combination weighing device of the present invention is configured as described above, the combination discharge of the articles from the weighing section is continued, the quantity of articles on the dispersion feeder is reduced from the reference quantity, and this state is set to a predetermined value. When the time (T _ON ) is continued, the article is carried into the dispersion feeder from the article carry-in device. Then, when the state in which the amount of articles in the dispersion feeder exceeds the reference amount continues for a predetermined time (T _OFF ), the delivery of articles is stopped.

When the amount of articles immediately after the stop of the carry-in is not within the predetermined range, the carry-in input of the article carry-in device is variably controlled so as to approach the range.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a combination weighing device according to an embodiment.

This combination weighing device is similar to the above-mentioned conventional device in that the article carry-in conveyor 1 which is an article carry-in device
Top 2a of the dispersion feeder 2 forming a dispersion feeder with the radiation feeders 3 _{1 to} 3 _n and the intermediate hoppers 4 ₁ to 4 _n.
The goods are supplied to. Articles distributed on the dispersion feeder 2, the radiating feeders 3 ₁ to 3 _n and the intermediate hopper 4 ₁
˜4 _n to the weighing hoppers 5 _{1 to} 5 _n .

The articles contained in the weighing hoppers 5 _{1 to} 5 _n are weighed by the respective weighing devices 6 _{1 to} 6 _n . The weighing signal of each weighing device is output to the combination selection circuit 10.

Upon receiving the combination request signal, the combination selection circuit 10 sequentially performs the combination calculation of the measured values according to different combination patterns, selects the combination within the preset target weight range, and selects the combination signal weighing hopper. Output to the switching circuit 11.

The weighing hopper opening / closing circuit 11 opens and closes the weighing hoppers selected for the combination, and discharges the combined articles as a group through the collecting chute 7.

The intermediate hopper opening / closing circuit 12 opens / closes the intermediate hopper corresponding to the emptied weighing hopper to supply new articles to the weighing hopper, and the radiation feeder drive circuit 13 radiates the radiation corresponding to the empty intermediate hopper. The feeder is driven to supply new articles to the intermediate hopper.

The distributed feeder drive circuit 14 continuously drives the distributed feeder 2 while the radiation feeders 3 _{1 to} 3 _n are driven in a state in which the radiation feeders 3 _{1 to} 3 _n are not spaced apart from each other for a predetermined time T _B or more,
When the state where all the radiation feeders are stopped continues for T _B time, the driving of the dispersion feeder 2 is stopped.

A projector 15 and a photodetector 16 are arranged at a reference level R above the dispersion feeder 2, and a projector 20 and a photoreceiver 21 are arranged at a lower limit level _RL above the d _{1 by} a lower limit level R _L thereof. The projector 22 and the light receiver 23 are also arranged at the upper limit level R _U, which is d ₂ above R _L.

These three sets of light emitters / receivers consist of the dispersion feeder 2
The amount of articles above is detected, and the light reception signal of the light receiver 17 is output to the first level determination circuit 25.

The first level judgment circuit 25 outputs a carry-in start signal after T _ON time has elapsed since the height of the article on the dispersion feeder 2 has decreased below the reference level R, similarly to the level judgment circuit 17 of the conventional apparatus. , T _{OFF after} increasing from the reference level R
After that time, the carry-in stop signal is output.

The light reception signals of the light receivers 21 and 23 are output to the second level determination circuit 27.

The second level judging circuit 27 receives the falling articles from the first level judging circuit 25 for a predetermined time, that is, after the article carrying conveyor 1 is stopped, After the drop time Td until it is completely supplied onto the dispersion feeder 2, the light receiving states of the light receivers 21 and 23 are determined.

FIG. 2 shows the judgment output of the second level judgment circuit 27 for the light receiving state, and the drop time Td.
If the state of the light receiver 21 after that is the light receiving state, up (U
P) signal is output, and if the light receiver 23 is in a non-light receiving state, a down (DWN) signal is output. It should be noted that this determination output continues until the next carry-in stop signal is received.

The decision output of the second level decision circuit 27 is
It is input to the conveyor speed control circuit 30.

The conveyor speed control circuit 30 operates at a speed corresponding to the judgment output of the second level judgment circuit 27 from the reception start signal from the first level judgment circuit 25 to the reception stop signal. The article carry-in conveyor 1 is carried.

Next, the operation of this combination weighing device will be described.

Now, on the dispersion feeder 2, the light emitter / receiver 1
It is assumed that the operation is started in a state where the articles are supplied in a state higher than 5 and 16 and the weighed hoppers 5 _{1 to} 5 _n contain the already-measured articles.

Here, when a combination request signal is input from the packaging machine, the combination calculation of the weighing values of the respective weighing devices 6 _{1 to} 6 _n is started, a combination within the target weight range is selected, and the combination selection signal is selected. Is output to the weighing hopper opening / closing circuit 11,
The articles selected for the combination are discharged all at once from the weighing hopper and stored in a packaging machine or the like via the collecting chute 7.

New articles are supplied to the emptied weighing hopper from the intermediate hopper opened and closed by the intermediate hopper opening / closing circuit 12. The radiant feeders corresponding to the emptied intermediate hoppers are each driven for a predetermined time by the radiant feeder drive circuit 13, and new articles are supplied to the intermediate hoppers.

The dispersion feeder 2 continuously disperses the articles in the respective radiation feeder directions unless all the radiation feeders are stopped for a predetermined time T _B or longer.

Similarly, each time a combination request signal is input, a combination is selected and the combined articles within the target weight range are discharged.

On the other hand, while such a series of metering and discharging operations are repeated, the articles on the dispersion feeder 2 decrease in accordance with the discharging degree.

While the metering and discharging operation is being repeated, as shown in FIG. 3A, when the T _ON time elapses after the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder 2 decreases from the reference level R (t ₁ o'clock), the carry-in start signal is output from the first level determination circuit 25, and the article carry-in conveyor 1 is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the conveyance is driven at a predetermined initial speed V ₀ .

When the T _OFF time has elapsed since the first article loading was started and the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder 2 reached the reference level R (t ₂ o'clock), the loading from the first level determination circuit 25 was stopped. A signal is output and the driving of the article carry-in conveyor 1 is stopped.

The time t when the drop time Td has elapsed since the driving was stopped
_{At 3} o'clock, the second level determination circuit 27 causes the photo detectors 21 located at the lower limit level R _L and the upper limit level R _U ,
The light receiving state of 23 is determined. As o'clock t _3, when articles on the dispersion feeder 2 is greater than or equal to the upper limit level (light receiver 23
In the non-light receiving state), a down signal is output as shown in FIG.

Therefore, at the time t ₄ of the next article loading start, the article loading conveyor 1 is driven at a speed slower than the initial speed V ₀ by a predetermined value (α).

In this way, the amount of articles after the stop of loading is
The conveyor speed is variably controlled to decrease until it enters between the upper limit level R _L and the lower limit level R _U as at t ₅ .

Further, as shown at t ₆ , when the articles in the dispersion feeder 2 after the article loading is completed are below the lower limit level _RL , at t ₇ after the drop time Td,
An up signal is output from the second level determination circuit 27. Therefore, at the start of the next carrying-in (t ₈ o'clock), the article carrying-in conveyor 1 has a predetermined value (β) from the carrying speed V _n until then.
Transport is driven at a high speed.

Similarly, every time the quantity of articles on the dispersion feeder 2 decreases from the reference level R, the article carry-in conveyor 1
Is driven to load the article, and the loading input of the article loading conveyor 1 is variably controlled so that the article immediately after loading falls between the upper limit level _RU and the lower limit level _RL .

For this reason, it is possible to reduce the fluctuation of the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder 2 due to the state of article replenishment to the article carry-in conveyor 1, while maintaining highly accurate combination weighing,
You can continue to drive.

In this embodiment, the conveyor type device is used as the article carrying-in device, but when the conveying force of the vibration feeder type article carrying-in device is changed, its vibration intensity may be changed.

When a bucket type carry-in device is used, the amount of articles supplied into each bucket may be variably controlled.

Further, in the above embodiment, three pairs of light emitters / receivers are used as means for detecting the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder 2, but this does not limit the present invention.
It is also possible to use two pairs of light-emitter and light-receiver so that the carry-in input is lowered when the article immediately after being carried in exceeds the upper light-emitter / receiver level, and is increased when the article is below the upper light-emitter / receiver level. Alternatively, the dispersion feeder 2 may be placed on a scale, and the amount of articles may be detected by the output value of the scale. In this case, the weight of the balance can be easily detected by using a natural dispersion type, that is, a dispersion feeder that does not vibrate.

In the above embodiment, the dispersion feeder 2,
Although the radiant feeders 3 _{1 to} 3 _n and the intermediate hoppers 4 ₁ to 4 _n form a distributed feeder, the intermediate hopper is omitted, or as shown in FIG.
The plurality of feeders 42, 4 arranged in parallel
The same can be applied to a weighing device having a dispersion feeder for carrying out dispersions at 2, ..., 42.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the carrying force of the article carrying-in device is varied every time the carrying-in of the article is finished, but the carrying force is changed when the article carrying-in device is continuously lower than the lower limit level _RL for a predetermined number of times. On the contrary, the carrying force may be decreased when the upper limit level R _U or more is continuously reached a predetermined number of times.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, each weighing section is composed of the weighing hopper and the weighing machine. However, the weighing hopper is provided with a plurality of article storage sections, and the weighing of the articles stored in each storage section is performed. The same can be applied to a combination weighing device having a weighing unit of a type that is calculated from the output of a container or a type in which articles weighed by one weighing hopper are transferred to another hopper.

[0059]

As described above, the combination weighing device of the present invention detects the amount of articles immediately after the articles are carried into the dispersion feeder from the article carry-in device, and the article quantity approaches the predetermined range. The loading amount of the article loading device is variably controlled in the direction.

Therefore, the change in the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder can be suppressed in a stable state without causing a shortage of articles, the amount of articles supplied to each weighing unit is stable, and highly accurate weighing is possible. Become.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a main part of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional device.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the conventional device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing changes in the amount of articles on a dispersion feeder of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Carry-in Conveyor 2 Dispersion Feeder 3 _{1 to} 3 _n Radiation Feeder 4 ₁ to 4 _n Intermediate Hopper 5 _{1 to} 5 _n Weighing Hopper 6 _{1 to} 6 _n Weighing Machine 7 Collecting Chute 10 Combination Selection Circuit 11 Weighing Hopper Open / Close Circuit 12 Intermediate Hopper Switching circuit 13 Radiation feeder drive circuit 14 Dispersion feeder drive circuit 15, 20, 22 Projector 16, 21, 23 Light receiver 25 First level determination circuit 27 Second level determination circuit 30 Conveyor speed control circuit

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] February 17, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Fig. 2]

[Figure 4]

[Figure 6]

[Figure 1]

[Figure 3]

[Figure 5]

[Figure 7]

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of weighing units that weigh articles received by an article receiver with a weighing machine, and a combination of weighing values that is within a target range among the items weighed by each weighing unit. A combination discharging means for discharging the selected articles from the weighing section, and an article received at a predetermined receiving place is dispersed into a plurality of paths corresponding to the plurality of weighing sections, and the articles are discharged by the combination discharging section. A distributed feeder that supplies articles to the weighing unit from corresponding paths, an article amount detection unit that detects the amount of articles on the distributed feeder, and a dispersion supply unit that receives a detection signal from the article amount detection unit. A carry-in signal is output after a state in which the amount of articles above is equal to or less than a predetermined reference amount continues for a predetermined time (T _ON ) and a state in which the amount of articles on the dispersion feeder is equal to or more than the reference amount is within a predetermined time (T _ON ).
_OFF ) First level determination means for outputting a carry-in stop signal after continuing, and reception of the distributed feeder between receiving the carry-in start signal from the first level judgment means and receiving the carry-in stop signal An article carry-in device for carrying in articles to a place, receiving a detection signal from the article quantity detection means, and the quantity of articles on the dispersion feeder immediately after the carrying-in of articles from the article carry-in device is stopped is the reference amount. A second level determination means for determining whether or not it is within a predetermined range that has been exceeded, and a determination result of the second level determination means. A combination weighing device comprising: a carry-in control means for variably controlling the carrying force of the article carry-in device.