JPH0761565A - Attitude detector for parts - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a posture detection device for parts, which has a simple device configuration and is easy to assemble. A component attitude detecting device installed in a vibrating parts feeder that vibrates a spiral transfer path formed on an inner peripheral wall of a bowl to transfer a component to a next process, and is a substantially transparent belt B '. A belt conveyor 4 formed by winding the rollers R1 'to R3' around the rollers R1 'to R3' in a gap formed by dividing the linear transfer path 3a at the exit of the vibrating parts feeder without contacting the transfer path 3a. In addition to being interposed, the CCD camera 44 'and the light source 45' through a substantially transparent belt B '.
Are arranged to face each other, and the component d conveyed by the belt conveyor 4 is imaged to detect the posture of the component d. This eliminates the need for two belt conveyors to form a gap as an optical path from the light source 45 'to the CCD camera 44'.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component posture detection device suitable for use in, for example, a vibratory component carrier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a vibrating parts feeder for supplying mechanical parts or the like to a next process while maintaining a certain posture by utilizing vibration. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of the conventional vibrating parts feeder 1. As shown in this figure, the vibrating parts feeder 1 has a large number of parts d, d, ...
(In the figure, only a few of them are shown for simplification.) A spiral part transfer path 3 is formed on the inner peripheral wall of the bowl 2 for receiving the transfer. The parts d, d, ... Are sequentially conveyed to the next process along the path 2.

Generally, a component posture detecting device is provided in the transfer path 3a at the outlet of the vibrating parts feeder 1, and these components have predetermined postures before being fed to the next process. It is designed to determine whether or not The applicant has already proposed a component posture detection apparatus that can make such a determination and exclude a component that is not in a predetermined posture.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a component posture detection apparatus proposed by the applicant. In the figure, at the exit of the vibrating parts feeder 1, a substantially linear transfer path 3a is divided into two, and a pair of belt conveyors 41, 42 for transferring the part d are transferred in the gap. It is interposed in a non-contact state with the path 3a. Each of the belt conveyors 41 and 42 has three rollers R1 to R3.
The belt B is wound in a substantially triangular shape around, and a gap S having a predetermined width is formed between the belt conveyors 41 and 42. The roller R1 on the side of the belt conveyor 41 is a driving roller driven by a motor (not shown), and is connected to the roller R1 on the side of the belt conveyor 42, which is a driven roller, via a chain 43, thereby forming a pair of belts. The conveyors 41 and 42 are driven in synchronization.

Further, a CCD camera 44 and a light source 45 are arranged so as to face each other across the gap S on the vertical line passing through the gap S between the belt conveyors 41 and 42, whereby a line for scanning the gap S. The sensor is configured.

Further, near the downstream end of the belt conveyor 42, an air injection nozzle 46 directed toward the bowl 2 (see FIG. 2) of the vibrating parts feeder 1 is installed, and its piping is electromagnetic. It is connected to a compressor (not shown) via a valve 47. In addition, the electromagnetic valve 47
The solenoid 47a for driving the is connected to the output end of a computer (not shown).

According to this structure, the component d transferred from the upstream side of the transfer path 3a is transferred to the belt conveyor 41.
When it is placed on the top, the vibration by the vibrating parts feeder 1 is not transmitted, and thereafter it is conveyed by the belt conveyor 41. When the component d passes through the gap S, the CCD camera 44 that scans the gap S captures the entire image line by line, and the image capture results are sequentially supplied to the computer.

When the component d is placed on the belt conveyor 42 and completely passes through the gap S, it is determined by the computer that the entire image of the component d has been captured, and the image capturing results for all lines (that is, the component d An entire image representing the posture) is compared with image data corresponding to a predetermined posture stored in a memory (not shown) in advance. At this time, if they do not match, it is determined that the posture of the component d is not in the predetermined posture, and the solenoid 47a is excited in accordance with the instruction from the computer. This allows
The electromagnetic valve 47 is opened, compressed air is ejected from the air ejection nozzle 46, and the component d is discharged to the bowl 2 side of the vibrating parts feeder 1. On the other hand, when the imaged result matches the image data, the air injection nozzle 46 is not driven and the component d is sent as it is to the downstream side of the transfer path 3a.

[0009]

By the way, in the above-described component attitude detecting apparatus, two belt conveyors 41, 42 are provided in order to form the gap S as an optical path from the light source 45 to the CCD camera 44. There is. Therefore, there is a drawback that the device configuration is complicated. Also,
When installing the two belt conveyors 41, 42, the gap S
When is too large, the component d falls into this gap S and its posture is disturbed, so that accurate posture detection cannot be performed. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to form the gap S as small as possible. For this reason,
When the belt conveyors 41 and 42 are installed, strict alignment must be performed, which makes it difficult to assemble the device.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide a posture detecting apparatus for parts, which has a simple apparatus structure and is easy to assemble.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a component posture detecting device installed in a vibrating component carrier that vibrates a predetermined transfer path to transfer a component. And a belt conveyer formed by winding a substantially transparent belt around a predetermined number of rollers in a non-contact state with respect to the transfer path in a gap portion that divides the transfer path. The image pickup means and the light source are arranged to face each other via the belt, and the component conveyed by the belt conveyor is imaged to detect the posture of the component.

[0012]

According to the present invention, when a component transferred due to vibration of the transfer path is placed on the belt conveyor, the belt conveyor does not transfer the vibration of the transfer path to the component.
The parts are transported. On the other hand, the light emitted from the light source passes through the substantially transparent belt and is supplied to the image pickup means, and the image pickup means picks up an image of the part on the belt conveyor illuminated by the light supplied from the light source to determine the posture of the part. To detect. As a result, it is not necessary to provide two belt conveyors and perform strict alignment as in the conventional case in order to form a gap as an optical path from the light source to the image pickup means.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, parts common to the parts shown in FIG. 3 are assigned the same reference numerals and explanations thereof are omitted.

In FIG. 1, one belt conveyor 4 that conveys the part d is interposed in the gap where the transfer path 3a is divided into two parts in a non-contact state with respect to the transfer path 3a. This belt conveyor 4 has a substantially transparent belt B'3.
The roller R1 'to R3' is wound around in a substantially triangular shape, and the roller R1 'is connected to a motor (not shown) for driving the belt B'.

Further, the CCD camera 44 'and the light source 45' are arranged opposite to each other via a belt B'which serves as a conveyance path for the component d. That is, the CCD camera 44 'and the light source 4
There is nothing blocking the optical path of the light source 45 'between the light source 45' and the component 5 ', and the light emitted by the light source 45' is transmitted to the CCD camera 44 'through the substantially transparent belt B'. It is like this. Further, the CCD camera 44 'has an image pickup area sufficient for picking up the entire image of the part d in one operation, and the size of the light source 45' is determined corresponding to this image pickup area. There is. That is, the CCD camera 44 'and the light source 45' constitute an area sensor that detects the posture of the component d conveyed by the belt conveyor 4 by one image pickup operation. The other configurations are similar to those of the conventional example shown in FIG.

According to this structure, when the component d transferred from the upstream side of the transfer path 3a is placed on the belt conveyer 4, the vibration by the vibrating parts feeder 1 is not transmitted, and thereafter, the belt conveyer 3a is not transmitted. 4 is conveyed. Then, when the component d passes in front of the CCD camera 44 ', the whole image thereof is picked up and the picked up result is supplied to a computer (not shown).

Then, the computer compares the image pickup result with the image data stored in the memory (not shown) in advance. Thereafter, based on this comparison result, the suitability of the posture of the component d is determined as in the conventional case, and the component d is discharged by the air injection nozzle 46 or is sent to the next step as it is according to the determination result.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the belt conveyor 4 for conveying the component d is constructed by using the substantially transparent belt B ', so that the light path of the light emitted from the light source 44' is the same as the conventional one. It is not necessary to form the gap S. As a result, the two belt conveyors 41 and 4 are conventionally used.
Since it is not necessary to provide 2 and it is not necessary to perform strict alignment for forming the gap S small, the device is simplified and the assembly is facilitated.

In this embodiment, the belt conveyor 4 having a substantially triangular shape is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a substantially transparent belt B'is wound around two rollers separated by a predetermined distance. A belt conveyor may be configured. In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, if the light source 45 'cannot be arranged inside the belt conveyor, the light source 45' may be arranged below the belt conveyor. That is, C
As long as it does not block the optical path of the light source 45 'with respect to the CD camera 44', the configuration of the belt conveyor and the arrangement position of the light source 45 'with respect to the belt conveyor can be arbitrarily selected.

Further, the positional relationship between the CCD camera 44 'and the light source 45' may be reversed so that the light source 45 'is arranged above the belt B'and the CCD camera 44' is arranged below the belt B '. Good.

Further, in the present embodiment, the CCD camera 4 is not limited to the one-time image pickup range as in the conventional case.
Although 4'and the light source 45 'are configured as area sensors, the invention is not necessarily limited to this, and the CCD camera 44' and the light source 45 'may be configured as line sensors according to the need for downsizing of the device.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to provide two belt conveyors and perform precise alignment in order to form a gap as an optical path from the light source to the image pickup means. This has the effect of simplifying the device structure and facilitating assembly.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of a conventional vibrating parts feeder.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional device proposed by the applicant.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vibration parts feeder 2 Bowl 3, 3a Transfer path 4 Belt conveyor 44 'CCD camera 45' Light source 46 Air jet nozzle 47 Electromagnetic valve 47a Solenoid B 'Substantially transparent belt R1' to R3 'Roller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An attitude detecting device for a component, which is installed in a vibrating component carrier for vibrating a predetermined transfer path to transfer a component, comprising a substantially transparent belt wound around a predetermined number of rollers. A belt conveyor, which is interposed in a gap portion that divides the transfer path in a non-contact state with respect to the transfer path, and the imaging means and the light source are arranged to face each other through the substantially transparent belt, An attitude detecting device for a part, characterized by picking up an image of a part conveyed by a conveyor and detecting the attitude of the part.