JPH054007B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is a combination weighing device that is provided at the weighing hopper and the lower side of the weighing hopper for accurately weighing products such as snack products such as potato chips to a set weight prior to packaging. The present invention relates to the device structure of a collection hopper that connects to the next packaging device, etc.

PRIOR ART Among the many products supplied to consumers at department stores, supermarkets, etc., there are products such as agricultural products and snacks that are packaged, and these packaged products often have a set target weight value. In order to measure the weight of this packaging, the unit weight of each product varies, so it is necessary to make some calculations, potentially resulting in a large profit loss on the supply side. Risk is owed.

Therefore, the weight of one unit is varied and divided into many heads of various constants in a circular array, the product is fed from the upper pool hopper to the lower weighing hopper, the weighed weight is detected, and a so-called combination calculation is performed using an electronic computer. Then, a combination that is equal to or similar to the target unit weight is determined, and the opening/closing plate of the weighing hopper is opened to discharge the weight to the lower collecting hopper and supply it to the next packaging device. It has been.

Measuring using such a combination weighing device has been technically perfected, and various combination weighing devices have already been put into practical use, and various technologies have been developed and are being installed in actual machines.

For example, a so-called alternating weighing operation method has been introduced in which one combination weighing is performed and the next combination weighing is performed between the remaining weighing hoppers while the discharge process is proceeding. A method for extracting a combined weight value has also been developed.

The selection of a weighing device that combines these types and methods varies depending on the type of discharge to the next packaging device, the holding mechanism of the weighing hopper, etc., but basically the overall device cannot be made compact. There is a problem that speeding up does not always work as desired.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention On the user side, there is a strong desire for high-volume high-speed processing and accurate weighing accuracy. In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of processing, it is necessary to increase the number of heads on the circumference of the weighing hopper, but this inevitably increases the number of parts in the equipment, resulting in an increase in the size of the device. In order to increase the weight and the sliding distance of the product, there is a limit to the number of times it can be weighed per minute.For example, in the food-related industry, products that are relatively heavy and have a high bulk density, such as grains and candy, are weighed up to 100 times per minute. Although it is difficult to significantly exceed the hopper and it is essential to operate the motor with the next packaging device, for example, when using an alternating weighing method, the packaging section of the packaging device is divided into two types and placed under the collecting hopper. A timing hopper, etc. must be attached to the device, making the device complicated. For example, in the case of snack products such as potato chips, which have a relatively light bulk density, the combination weighing device itself is potentially faster due to the influence of air resistance during the fall. Even if large-scale processing was carried out, the plant's efficiency did not improve much.

In response to this, in response to the multiple packaging processing of the packaging equipment, the opening/closing plate of the weighing hopper is a twin type, with one facing the center and the other facing outward. Alternatively, a system in which the heads are discharged independently is also adopted, but in a combination weighing device of a general design in which each head is arranged around the circumference, the opening/closing drive device for each opening/closing plate of the pool hopper and weighing hopper is installed in the device. Since most of the devices are installed at the center of the inside, the links of the opening/closing mechanism for the opening/closing plates on the inside and outside of the weighing hopper cannot be arranged uniformly and have the same design, which results in mechanically complex operations and complicated balances. There was a fear that the vibration and noise during operation would become severe and affect weighing operations.

Moreover, the compact size of the device was also an impediment to increasing speed and improving precision in mass processing.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems that hinder the miniaturization and high-speed processing of the conventionally developed combination weighing devices. Changes were made to ensure a uniform and symmetrical arrangement of each mechanical part,
Furthermore, the structure of the collecting hopper for the next packaging process is a combination that takes advantage of the discharge of the two sets of combined weighing that has been developed so far, while making it easier for the product to slide down and ensuring that it can be discharged to the packaging process. The purpose is to provide a measuring device.

Structure of the Invention The structure underlying the gist of the present invention is that for a pool hopper with a predetermined number of heads in a circular arrangement, products such as snack products are placed on a distribution table provided at the center of the upper part of the device and distributed around the pool hopper. The feeders of each of the many heads supply the product to the corresponding pool hopper, and when the weighing hopper below the pool hopper is opened and the product is discharged, the product is fed to the weighing hopper, and each weighing hopper calculates the weight of the product put in. The weight is detected by a weight detection device such as a load cell and input into an electronic computer, and the electronic computer selects a combination of weighing hoppers whose weight approximates the target weight value. When one of the pair of opening/closing plates in the array is opened, the product is discharged directly to the collecting hopper, or directly below the radially joining line of the pair of opening/closing plates in the circumferential arrangement of each weighing hopper. The products in the collecting hoppers and the collecting plates are separated by being guided by the flanges on the edges provided along the collecting hopper and by the collecting plates, which are half the number of the total number of weighing hoppers, and are set on the upper part of the collecting hopper. The products are connected and discharged to the next packaging device, etc. without mutual interference, and the products are weighed by combining the mutually independent collecting plate and collecting hopper. The pair of opening/closing plates of the weighing hopper do not open at the same time in a single weighing hopper, but in circumferentially different measuring hoppers, the opening/closing plates for the collecting plate and the collecting hopper are performed independently of each other. The opening/closing air structure is arranged uniformly from the center to the circumferential direction, which makes the operating condition uniform and suppresses the level of vibration and noise of the entire device.The device is compact and each mechanical part of the product is In addition, the weighing hopper also includes a memory hopper at the bottom, and the opening/closing plate of the memory hopper functions in the same manner as in the above-mentioned embodiment.

Example Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The illustrated embodiment is for the combination weighing of snack products such as potato chips, and the combination weighing device 1 has an upper combination weighing section arranged in a center-symmetric arrangement, and a lower gathering section arranged in a plane-symmetric arrangement as shown in FIG. is being used.

In the upper combination weighing section, an electromagnetic dispersion table 2 is provided at the center of the upper part, and around it electromagnetic feeders 3, 3, etc. are arranged in a radial direction with a set number of heads, such as 12. The tips thereof face pool hoppers 5, 5, etc., which have opening/closing plates 4 that open and close inside each head arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and the lower side of the pool hopper 5 has a corresponding metering plate. A hopper 6 is provided.

Each weighing hopper 6, which is an important point of the present invention,
is approximately square (including rectangular) in plan view, and has a pair of opening/closing plates 7 clockwise in the drawing and an opening/closing plate 7' in the opposite direction extending along the center direction, that is, the radial direction. The opening/closing plates 7, 7 are arranged in parallel with the joining line 8, perpendicular to the circumferential direction, that is, along a line directed toward the center, and are opened/closed.

Each pool hopper 5 and weighing hopper 6 are opened and closed by a drive device 9 provided at the center of the device using a conventionally developed well-known opening/closing link mechanism, but in the present invention, the pool hopper 5 and weighing hopper Since the hoppers 6 are all arranged center-symmetrically in the circumferential direction, and in particular, the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of the weighing hopper 6 are also arranged center-symmetrically, drive mechanisms such as links are provided inside and outside the conventional type. Unlike those that have different functions, they all have a uniform mechanism.

Therefore, the links and the like of the opening/closing mechanism can be appropriately designed according to the mechanisms developed so far.

Note that the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of the weighing hopper 6 are not opened and closing at the same time in one weighing hopper 6, but the opening/closing plates 7 and 7' are independently opened and closed at each other's heads in the entire circumferential direction. They can be opened and closed simultaneously (but not simultaneously for the same head hopper) or alternately.

On the other hand, at the gathering part on the lower side of each weighing hopper 6, there is a weighing hopper 10 with a set inclination angle that has a diameter slightly larger than the length from the center to the outermost side of each weighing hopper 6.
A flange 10' that covers the outside of each weighing hopper 6 is integrally provided on the upper edge thereof, and a discharge chute 11 below the flange 10' is integrally provided at a position slightly offset from the center. It is being

In addition, flanges 12, 12 as approximately triangular edges as shown in FIG. ... is gathering hoppa 1
Each flange 10 has collecting plates 13, 13, .
2 and 12 are welded together on both sides, and the tips are temporarily welded to the joint between the upper edge of the discharge chute 10 and the flange 10', and as shown in FIG. 6..., that is, in the embodiment, 6 pieces are provided, and each collecting plate 13 has flanges 12 on both sides thereof,
12 is formed into a U-shaped cross section and is connected to a single plate assembled at the center and communicated with a discharge chute 14, which passes through the collection hopper 10 as shown in the figure and connects to the discharge chute 14. It is connected to the next packaging device (not shown) separately from 11.

As shown in FIG. 3, only one of these collecting plates 13, 13... is the collecting plate 1.
3 is a flange 15 connected to the inclined surface of the collecting hopper 10 on the lower side of the flanges 12, 12 on both edges thereof;
15 are integrally welded, and the flanges 15, 15 extend inwardly to the outer surface of the discharge chute 14 of the collecting plate 13 and are integrally welded thereto.
In the process of sliding down, the collecting plate 13 does not collide or stagnate against the discharge chute 14, and slides down smoothly.

Therefore, one weighing hopper opening/closing plate 7,
7' are not opened at the same time, but weighing hopper 6,
6... mutually, one opening/closing plate 7 or the other opening/closing plate 7' opens independently, and the collecting plate 1 is connected to the flange 12 of the collecting plate 13.
When the product is opened to the third side, weighed products are discharged onto the collection plate 13 and discharged from the discharge chute 14 to the next packaging device, and the flange 12
If it opens outward, that is, on the opposite side of the collecting plate 13, the collecting plates 13, 13
It falls into a collecting hopper 10 from between and is discharged from a discharge chute 11 to a corresponding packaging process of the packaging apparatus.

Therefore, a pair of opening/closing plates 7 for each weighing hopper,
The weighed products in the weighing hopper 6 are discharged and dropped into the discharge chute 13 or the collecting hopper 10 by means of a flange 12 provided directly below the joining line 8 of the weighing hopper 7'.

Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 2, the inclination angle of each collecting plate 13 is set to be smaller than the inclination angle of the collecting hopper 10, but this is done so that it does not interfere with the sliding of potato chip products.

Next, the operation of the combination weighing device 1 of the present invention will be explained. As in the conventional case, when potato chips are successively dropped onto the center of the upper dispersion table 2, the vibrating dispersion table 2 distributes the chips to each head in an average distributed state. The products are supplied to the feeders 3, 3..., and the products from each feeder are supplied to the corresponding pool hopper 5 by vibration, and when the weighing hopper 6 on the lower side is opened and the weighed products are discharged, the product is driven via the control device. The device 9 opens the opening/closing plate 4 and puts the product into the weighing hopper 6, and the feeder 3 continuously operates to feed the product into the pool hopper 5.

Therefore, each weighing hopper 6 detects the weight of the loaded product using a load cell or the like (not shown), and the detection signal is input to a computer, which performs predetermined calculations to calculate a set target value or a combination of values close to it. Either of the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of the weighing hoppers 6, 6, . . . selected for combined weighing is opened, and the weighed products are discharged.

Therefore, to describe the mechanism after discharging in detail, as mentioned earlier, the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of one weighing hopper do not open at the same time, but the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of each weighing hopper 6 For example, as shown in FIG. 4, if the opening/closing plate 7' of the right weighing hopper opens and simultaneously the opening/closing plate 7' of the left weighing hopper 6 opens and closes simultaneously or alternately, the As mentioned above, the weighed products in the right weighing hopper 6 are discharged to the collection hopper 10 side by the flange 12 provided toward the center along the lower joint line of the opening/closing plates 7, 7', and The weighed products from the weighing hopper 6 are discharged onto the collecting plate 13, and then slide down together to be discharged into the respective discharge chutes 11 and 14.

Since such a discharge combination mechanism is carried out simultaneously or alternately and independently in each weighing hopper 6, two combinations are obtained for all weighing hoppers 6, 6, . . . simultaneously or alternately.

Then, for the remaining weighing hoppers 6, 6 that were not selected for the two sets of combinations, combination weighing may be performed again as in the above-mentioned alternate weighing method. The next combination weighing may be carried out using the next product inputted therein and the weighing hoppers 6, 6, .

In this way, one combination weighing device 1 performs two sets of combination weighing at the same time or with a time lag, and the collection plates 13, 13, . . . It is discharged to the packaging process.

Note that the products discharged to the collection hopper 10 slide down the slope, but only one collection plate 1 is used for the discharge chute 14 of the collection plates 13, 13, . . . provided through the collection hopper 10.
The flanges 15, 15 on both sides of 3 are the discharge chute 1
In order to guide the products sliding down the slope of the collection hopper 10 relative to the discharge chute 14, the products are guided to slide down smoothly without collision or stagnation with respect to the discharge chute 14.

During this time, the pair of opening/closing plates 7, 7' of each weighing hopper 6 will not open simultaneously in accordance with the set algorithm, but the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of each weighing hopper 6 will open and close independently of each other for the head that is completely closed. All weighing hoppers 6,
In the combination weighing in 6..., two sets of optimal combination measurements are performed.

Since the opening/closing plates 7 and 7' can be opened and closed at different times, the speed of the products sliding down the slopes of the collecting plate 13 and collecting hopper 10 is limited, but they are independent of each other. The opening/closing plates 7 and 7' can be slid down.
The opening/closing operation and the collection plate 13 due to the time lag.
By separately providing the collecting hopper 10 and the collecting hopper 10, high-speed processing by combined weighing and discharging can be performed even more quickly.

Of course, even if the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of each weighing hopper 6 for all heads are opened and closed at the same time in adjacent ones, the next simultaneous opening/closing will involve separate sliding of each collecting plate 13 and collecting hopper 10. Since it is transferred to the next packaging device by discharge, it has no effect on high-speed processing and can be carried out in exactly the same way.

And with these combined measurements, each pool hopper 5
The opening/closing operations of not only the opening/closing plate 4 but also the opening/closing plates 7, 7' of each weighing hopper 6 are performed by the same mechanism in a centrally symmetrical manner. It is undesirable for uneven vibrations and noise to occur. Moreover, even if such a problem occurs, it is balanced and canceled out all around the circumference, and a combination metering operation that is quiet on average is performed.

Note that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to those described above, and for example, the flanges on both sides of the collecting plate 13 are
As shown in the figure, the upper edge of the lower side of the weighing hopper 6 is horizontal, but the upper edge of the inner side does not need to be inclined.
Furthermore, the target products can be applied not only to snack products but also to granular products with large bulk density and block-shaped products.

It is also possible to make the opening/closing plate of the memory hopper provided below the weighing hopper function in the same manner as described above.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the combination weighing device of the present invention can measure the target set weight of products such as snack products that are combined and weighed by the pool hoppers and weighing hoppers of a large number of heads, or products with a weight similar to this. Not only does the effect of discharging to the next packaging process remain the same as in combination weighing devices that have been developed up to now, but also alternate weighing is performed using a pair of opening/closing plates below each weighing hopper. This effect can also be obtained.

The improved weighing hopper of the present invention is arranged in a circumferential direction so that the heat can be opened and closed in the circumferential direction through the pair of opening/closing plates, that is, each opening/closing plate is arranged so that the lower joining line of each opening/closing plate is directed toward the center. Because the pair of opening/closing plates are oriented parallel to each other in the radial direction, the links of the opening/closing mechanism to the opening/closing plates are different on the inside and outside, unlike previous designs. Because the number of parts can be reduced, the number of parts can be reduced, and costs can be reduced due to common use.Also, since all the opening/closing plates are opened and closed by the same mechanism, their operating motions are the same. Vibration and noise are suppressed or canceled out, resulting in quiet operation, with excellent effects such as no influence on load cells and the like during metering.

Moreover, the effect of improving measurement accuracy is also achieved.

In addition, since the links of the opening/closing mechanism are all centrally symmetrical with the same mechanism and in the same arrangement, the space between the weighing hoppers and pool hoppers or the space inside them can be used for effective equipment arrangement, making the device more compact. This has the excellent effect of shortening the product sliding process and increasing speed.

In addition, in the lower gathering part, a gathering plate is provided above the gathering hopper radially from the center, and flanges on both sides of the gathering plate are provided along the joining line when closing the opening/closing plate of the lightweight hopper, that is, along the center direction. Unless a pair of opening/closing plates of one weighing hopper are opened and closed at the same time, the weighing hoppers of adjacent weighing hoppers can be opened and closed independently of each other at the same time or alternately. are carried out freely simultaneously or alternately, and all sliding lengths of the collecting plate in the horizontal and vertical directions and the sliding lengths of the collecting hopper in the horizontal and vertical directions are exactly the same length, which is different from the conventional type. This has the excellent effect that the processing process from combination weighing to packaging can be performed for both sets at the same timing, without causing a shift in feeding due to the difference in sliding length between the inner collecting hopper and the outer collecting hopper. It is played.

In this way, the drive mechanism for the opening/closing plate of the weighing hopper, the opening/closing ring, etc. not only have the same structure and the same operation, but also the length of the sliding process at each head of the product from loading to discharge remains unchanged. The excellent effect of significantly improving measurement accuracy is achieved.

In addition, the rigidity and strength of the entire device is improved because all mechanical parts have a uniform structure and arrangement, and because vibrations are particularly small or suppressed, there is no need to attach unnecessary strength members, which reduces material costs. This also has the effect of reducing the cost of inspection, maintenance, etc.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings are explanatory diagrams of one embodiment of the present invention, and the first
The figure is an overall schematic perspective view, Figure 2 is a schematic side view of the same, Figure 3 is a plan view of the collecting section, and Figure 4 is a schematic perspective view of the opening/closing of the opening/closing plate of the weighing hopper and the discharge of the collecting plate and the collecting hopper. . 1... Combination weighing device, 2... Dispersion table,
3... Feeder, 4... Opening/closing plate, 5... Pool hopper, 6... Measuring hopper, 7... Opening/closing plate, 8... Joining line, 9... Opening/closing mechanism, 10...
Collection hopper, 11...Discharge chute, 12...Flange, 13...Collection plate, 14...Discharge chute, 15...Flange.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a combination weighing device in which pool hoppers and weighing hoppers are arranged vertically around a distribution table via feeders having a large number of heads, each weighing hopper arranged in a circumferential direction is arranged relative to each other in the circumferential direction. A pair of opening/closing plates for discharging are provided facing each other, and a collecting plate is provided on the upper part of the collecting hopper provided below the weighing hopper, which connects to the discharging chute separately installed on the lower side of the collecting hopper. The flanges on both edges of each collecting plate are provided along the radial direction immediately below the radial contact line of both opening and closing plates of the corresponding weighing hopper above. Combination weighing device. 2. The combination weighing device according to claim 1, wherein the inclination angle of each of the collecting plates is gentler than that of the collecting hopper. 3. The flanges on both edges of the collecting plate corresponding to the opening/closing plate rise above the inclined surface of the collecting hopper and are connected to the outer surface of the discharge chute of the collecting plate. Combination weighing device.