JPH08363A - Tray loading device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Correction) [Purpose] A tray loading device that automatically and quickly loads trays on which meals, etc. are set. [Structure] Inserting device 1 for inserting trays 111 one by one, temporary placing racks 3, 4 having a large number of shelves for temporarily placing trays 111 to be inserted, and temporary placing racks 3, 4
The extruders 5 and 6 that simultaneously push out a large number of trays 111 that are temporarily placed on the tray, and cart stations 7 and 8 that install the cart 101 at a position that receives the trays 111 that are pushed out by the extruders 5 and 6. The temporary racks 3 and 4 are movable in the vertical direction for each pitch of the shelves, and are between the first position A with respect to the insertion device 1 and the second positions B and C with respect to the extrusion devices 5 and 6. The trays 111 are movable, and the trays 111 are not loaded one by one into the cart 101, which is difficult to push, but placed on the temporary racks 3 and 4 having shelves corresponding to the number of stages of the cart 101, and the temporary rack 3 , 4 trays 111 all at once cart 101
It is designed to be loaded into.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tray loading device for automatically loading a tray on which food is placed on a cart for transportation at the final stage of an in-machine food production process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of in-flight meals for airplanes, meal setting is performed in a specialized catering factory. By the way, since airplanes travel back and forth between specific airports, carts loaded with trays containing post-meal tableware are delivered to the catering factory from the arrival flight, and the empty carts and trays are passed through washing and drying processes. , Tableware, etc. are reused. Then, for the departure flight, meal setting is performed in which the tableware with food is placed on a predetermined place of the tray and the tray is loaded into the cart.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a service cart carried in the cabin, FIG. 8 (a) is a side view, and FIG. 8 (b) is a front view with a door opened. Further, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the tray loaded in the service cart. FIG. 9A is a top view, FIG. 9B is a side view, and FIG. 9C is an enlarged view of part A. is there.

In FIG. 8, the service cart 101 is
Casters 103 are attached to the bottom of the box body 102 so that they can be carried, and doors 104, 1 are provided on both sides of the box body 102.
No. 05 is attached so as to be rotatable by 270 °.
A large number of horizontal shelf boards 106 are provided in the box 102 of the service cart 101, and a large number of steps are formed.
Two trays 111 can be loaded in series on one shelf 106, and the trays 111 can be taken in and out from either of the doors 104 and 105 on both sides. Note that 107
Is a heater provided as needed.

In FIG. 9, the tray 111 has a rectangular frame-shaped convex strip 112 and a L-shaped cutting convex strip 113 provided as necessary, a hook portion 114 at one end and a hook portion 115 at the other end.
And Necessary tableware or the like is placed on the portion surrounded by the ridges 112 and 113 and positioned. Then, when the two trays 111 are pushed in series to the shelf board 106 of the service cart 101 of FIG. 8, the hook portion 1 is attached to the hook portion 105.
When the trays 111 are engaged with each other as the board 04 is pulled up and the doors 104 and 105 are opened to pull out the front tray 111, the tray 111 located at the back can be pulled out to the front.

[0006] When loading the tray 111 in which the dishes full of food are fully loaded on the service cart 101, the tray 1 is inserted from the end of the service cart 101.
While keeping the horizontal position of 11, while noting to give a large vibration such as rattling, the shelf board 106
Slide it on and load. If you force the tray 111 into the service cart 101 and load it,
The arrangement of the dishes and the like on the tray 111 collapses. Therefore, the loading work is performed by a skilled person, and not everyone can do it. If an unskilled person performs the loading operation, it takes time to load the loading operation, which hinders the flow of meal setting.

[0007]

Thus, the tray 1 is
Since the work of loading 11 into the service cart 101 requires an expert, securing an expert is a condition for efficient meal setting, and the process flow may depend on this expert. There was a problem. Therefore,
It may be considered that the tray 111 is sequentially loaded into the service cart 101 by the lift-up means and the pusher means instead of the manual operation, but unlike the manual operation, the attitude of the tray cannot be delicately controlled (oscillation, etc.), and therefore the same as the manual operation. If it is pushed in early, the tray 111 shakes rattlingly, which causes a problem that the arrangement of the dishes placed side by side neatly is disturbed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art. The object of the present invention is to provide a cart in which trays are loaded in a large number of stages and which can be carried, in-flight meal, etc. It is an object of the present invention to provide a tray loading device capable of automatically and quickly loading a set tray.

[0009]

The tray loading apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, which achieves the above object, does not load trays one by one into a cart which is difficult to push, but has a shelf corresponding to the number of stages of the cart. It is designed to be placed on a placement rack and the trays of the temporary placement rack are loaded into the cart all at once.Specifically, trays with dishes etc. with in-flight meals on a transportable cart are arranged in multiple stages. A tray loading device for loading, an insertion device for inserting the trays one by one, a temporary placement rack having a plurality of shelves for temporarily placing the trays inserted by the insertion device, and the temporary placement The temporary placement rack has an extrusion device that simultaneously pushes out a large number of trays that are temporarily placed on a rack, and a cart station that installs a cart at a position that receives the trays that are pushed out by the extrusion device. Up and down with the movement can be freely for each pitch is obtained by a movable and a second position relative to the extrusion device and a first position relative to the insertion device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the tray loading apparatus, the rack of the temporary rack is provided so as to be movable up and down with respect to the rack body, and a predetermined pitch position at which the tray is inserted by the insertion apparatus and the cart position. It can be switched to a position along the steps.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tray loading device in which the rack of the temporary rack supports both ends of the tray.
The insertion device is a conveyor belt extending between the shelves.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the tray loading device, wherein each of the temporary placing rack and the pushing device has two sets, and
The second position is arranged on both sides of the position.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the tray loading device is such that the insertion direction of the insertion device with respect to the temporary rack is parallel to the extrusion direction of the extrusion device.

[0014]

In the tray loading apparatus according to the first aspect, the tray on which the dishes are placed is inserted toward the multiple racks of the temporary rack by the inserting device, and when the temporary rack is raised by the pitch of the rack, the tray is moved. Are placed on the shelves, and the trays are temporarily placed on a large number of shelves in the temporary rack by repeating the process of inserting the trays into the empty shelves by the insertion device. Next, the temporary rack is moved from the first position connected to the insertion device to the second position connected to the extrusion device, and the trays are simultaneously pushed out to the cart by the extrusion device. The shelves of the temporary storage racks only receive the trays from the insertion device, and the temporary storage is automatically performed at a speed equivalent to manual operation. Next, since a large number of trays are pushed out all at once from the temporary rack to the cart, the tableware etc. in the trays will not be distorted by pushing it out slowly.

In the tray loading device according to the second aspect of the present invention, even if the height accuracy of the partition plate of the cart varies, the tray can be smoothly pushed out by the shelf of the temporary rack.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the third aspect, stable insertion can be performed by supporting a wide portion of the lower surface of the tray.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the tray can be inserted into the temporary rack while being pushed out to the cart.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the fifth aspect, the tray flow direction is constant, and the cart station is provided at the final end thereof.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a top view showing the equipment arrangement of the tray loading apparatus of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an insertion device, 2 is a trace stocker, 3 and 4 are temporary racks, 5 and 6 are extrusion devices, and 7 and 8 are cart stations. A loading device is configured. Reference numeral 9 is a tray transport line.

The tray conveying line 9 has a narrow belt 11 and guides 12 on both ends in the longitudinal direction of the tray 111 on which dishes and the like are placed at predetermined positions, and the tray 111 is moved to the right in the drawing by running of the narrow belt 11. Be transported.

The insertion device 1 comprises a wide conveyor belt 15 stretched between a driven roller 13 and a driving roller 14, an inlet guide 16 and a stopper 17, and the tray 111 from the tray transfer line 9 is guided by the inlet guide 16. While guiding in the width direction, transfer to the wide conveyor belt 15,
The tray 111 is inserted into the temporary storage rack 3 by pulling it to the position where it hits the stopper 17.

The trace stocker 2 has two sets of temporary racks 3 and 4, and the temporary racks 3 and 4 are slidably moved in the vertical direction in the drawing, so that the temporary rack 3 becomes A.
It is movable between a position (first position) and a B position (1 of the second position), and the temporary rack 4 is between the A position (first position) and the C position (2 of the second position). Is freely movable. This trace stocker 2
The structure will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, a first slide base 23 that slides along a slide rail 22 on the base 21 is a base 2.
It is connected to the cylinder 24 attached to No. 1 and moves in the horizontal direction in the drawing. The reference numerals 22, 23, and 24 constitute a slide movement means for alternately shifting the first position and the second position. The moving direction of the slide moving means 22, 23, 24 is in a horizontal plane and is orthogonal to the inserting direction of the conveyor belt 15 of the inserting device.

A second first slide base 26 and a second second slide base 27, which slide along the slide rails 25 on the first slide base 23, are connected to a cylinder 28 attached to the first slide base 23. And move in the thickness direction of the drawing. The reference numerals 25, 26, 27 and 28 constitute the front-rear moving means. This front-back movement means 25, 26, 27, 2
The moving direction of 8 is the slide moving means 22, 23, 24.
Is a direction orthogonal to the direction.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 2A, the guide bar 31 is erected on the second slide table 26, and the screw bar 32 is rotatably supported in parallel with the guide bar 31. Has been done. The temporary rack 3 is attached to the brackets 33 and 34 that slide vertically along the guide bar 31. The bracket 34 meshes with the screw rod 32, and when the screw rod 32 is rotated by the motor 35, the temporary storage rack 3 moves up and down. By the controlled rotation of the motor 35, it is possible to raise the mounting pitch P of the multistage shelf described below. That is, reference numerals 31, 32, 3
3, 34 and 35 constitute vertical moving means for each pitch. Further, the temporary placement rack 4 provided on the second two-slide base 27 also has the same vertical movement means.

The temporary racks 3 and 4 are provided with both side plates 41 and a top plate 4.
It has a three-sided structure of 2 and 2, and the front and back and the lower part are open. A large number of shelves 43, each having L-shaped angles attached to face each other at intervals of a pitch P, are provided inside the side plates 41. This shelf 43 has a space of width W at the center, and this width W is the width W of the conveyor belt 15 of the insertion device.
The tray 111, which is wider than o, is placed on the conveyor belt 15 and is inserted into the tray 111. That is, the shelves 43 of the temporary rack support the both ends of the tray 111, and the insertion device is the conveyor belt 15 extending between the shelves 43.
Therefore, the tray 111 is supported by a wide portion of the lower surface of the tray 111, is stable, and can be inserted at high speed.

FIG. 4 shows a sequential temporary placing process of the tray 111 on the temporary placing rack 3. FIG. 10A shows a state in which the first and second trays 111 from the top have been temporarily placed, and the upper surface of the conveyor belt 15 of the insertion device is raised by a distance δ from the upper surface of the third shelf 43 from the top. ing.
FIG. 3B shows a state in which the tray 111 is inserted into the temporary storage rack 3 by the conveyor belt 15 and stopped by a stopper (not shown). In the same figure (c), the entire temporary storage rack 3 is raised by the pitch P, the tray 111 is supported by the third shelf 43 from the top, and the conveyor belt 15 is located at a position corresponding to the fourth shelf from the top. . The tray 111 is sequentially temporarily placed on the temporary placement rack 3 by repeating the steps (a) to (c).

Returning to FIG. 1, the extrusion devices 5 and 6 are provided with trays 11 from the temporary racks 3 and 4 at the B position and the C position.
1 is loaded into the cart 101 all at once, and the cart station 7, facing the extrusion devices 5 and 6,
8 are provided. The push-out devices 5 and 6 have a built-in pusher mechanism that allows a backing plate 61 that comes into contact with the center of the end of the tray 111 to move forward and backward, and the push-out direction is parallel to the carrying direction of the tray carrying line 9 and is in the same direction. ing. The cart stations 7 and 8 are provided with guide guides standing upright to guide both side surfaces of the cart 101.

Returning to FIG. 2, switching between pushing and temporarily placing the tray will be described. Tray 11 for temporary rack 3
While the temporary placement 1 is being performed, the trays 111 temporarily placed on the temporary placement rack 4 are simultaneously pushed out to the cart by the backing plate 61 of the extrusion device. The operation of the backing plate 61 hits a wide area at the center of the end of the tray 111, and the pushing direction of the tray 111 becomes constant, so that the backing plate 6 is slowly moved.
By the operation of 1, the tray 111 is loaded without rattling. Then, the temporary storage rack 4 becomes empty. In this way, the number of shelves in the temporary rack is made to match the number of shelves in the cart. In addition, the extrusion devices 5 and 6
Has a contact plate 61 that abuts near the center of a large number of tray ends, and does not lose the posture of the tray 111.
You can push it out.

During this time, when the temporary placement rack 3 is temporarily placed and all the trays 111 are temporarily placed, the temporary placement rack 3 is raised, but the rotation of the motor 35 causes the temporary placement rack 3 to move. Conveyor belt 1 as shown by the arrow
Ascend to a height that does not interfere with 5. At the same time, the temporary rack 4 also rises to a height where it does not interfere with the conveyor belt 15 as indicated by the arrow. Then, when the cylinder 24 is shortened,
As indicated by the arrow, the temporary placement rack 3 moves from the A position to the B position, and the temporary placement rack 4 moves from the C position to the A position. Then, the temporary placement racks 3 and 4 are lowered together as indicated by the arrow, the temporary placement rack 3 becomes the second position facing the pushing device 5 of FIG. 1, and the temporary placement rack 4 has the insertion device 3 inserted therein. No. 1
The position.

In FIG. 1, when a tray is loaded in the front half of the cart 101 in the cart station 8, the tray is loaded in the front half of the cart 101 in the cart station 7, and then in the cart 101 in the cart station 8. The trays in the first half are pushed in, more trays are loaded, the cart 101 is exchanged, and then the trays in the front half of the cart 101 in the cart station 7 are pushed in, more trays are loaded, and the cart 101 is exchanged. Thus, the cart 101 is continuously loaded. That is, the two sets of temporary racks 3 and 4 are switched between the A position at the first position and the B and C positions at the second positions on both sides thereof, and the pushing devices 5 and 6 are also at the B position at the second position.
If there are two sets corresponding to the C position, the tray can be inserted by the insertion device 3 and the trays can be extruded by the extrusion devices 5 and 6 at the same time, and continuous tray loading on two carts becomes possible. When one cart has been loaded, another cart is loaded while the cart is replaced with an empty cart without interruption. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, since the insertion direction of the insertion device 3 with respect to the temporary storage racks 3 and 4 and the extrusion direction of the extrusion devices 5 and 6 are parallel and in the same direction, the tray transfer line 9, the trace stocker 2 and the cart station 8, 9 can be arranged in series, and the space for loading and unloading the cart 101 is wide, which is convenient.

By the way, there is a case where the height accuracy of the partition plate on which the tray of the cart 101 is placed varies, and the rack of the temporary rack and the partition plate do not match. As a result, the tray may collide with the partition plate and the loading may become impossible. Therefore, the structure and operation of the temporary rack for eliminating this inconsistency will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIG. 5A is a front view of the shelves of the temporary racks 3 and 4, and FIG. 5B is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG.
Two slide rails 44, 44 are vertically attached to the both side plates 41 of the temporary racks 3, 4 at a predetermined interval. An L-shaped angled shelf 43 is attached to two slide bodies 45 that slide along the slide rails 44, and the shelf 43 is vertically slidable while maintaining a parallel posture. In addition, the rod 4 having the ring portion 46 on which the shelf 43 is placed between the two slide rails 44.
7 is provided, and this rod 47 moves up and down by a cylinder 48. When the rod 47 is raised, the shelves 43 are arranged at a predetermined pitch P and at a predetermined height, and the tray from the insertion device can be inserted. With the rod 47 lowered, the shelf 4
3 tries to lower together with the ring portion 46. That is, reference numerals 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 serve as switching means between the predetermined pitch position of the shelf 43 and the position along the partition plate of the cart.

Further, in FIG. 6, the rack 43 of the temporary storage rack advances toward the cart 101 by the distance L due to the shortening of the cylinder 28 in FIG. 2, and the width W overlaps with the shelf plate 106. When the rod 47 descends by the distance H in this state, the shelf 43 is placed on the shelf board 106 and is along the shelf board 106. That is, even if the height of the shelves 106 varies, the shelves 43 follow it. That is, when the rack 43 of the temporary rack is provided so as to be vertically movable with respect to the rack body, and is switchable between a predetermined pitch position when the tray is inserted by the insertion device and a position along the shelf plate which is the step of the cart. Even if the height accuracy of the partition plate of the cart varies, the cart can be inserted along the partition plate and the tray 111 is not caught on the shelf plate 106. Further, a step corresponding to the thickness of the shelf 43 is formed between the shelf 43 and the shelf board 106, and this step facilitates engagement between the hook portions 114 and 115 of the tray 111 of FIG.

The arrangement and structure of the inserting device, trace stocker, temporary rack, pushing device, and cart station are not limited to those shown in FIG. Trace stocker 7 on tray transfer line 71
2 are connected, and cart stations 73 and 74 are arranged on both sides of the tray transfer line 71 in the same direction. The shelves of the temporary racks 75 and 76 are trays 111.
The insertion device 78 connected to the tray transfer line 71 is composed of a plate 78 that supports the center of the lower surface of the plate 78.
It consists of narrow belts located on both sides of. Also,
The extrusion device 79 is inserted into the plate 78, and the tray 11
It is structured to push the end of 1. The most important point is that instead of loading each tray into a difficult-to-push cart, place it on a temporary rack with shelves corresponding to the number of cart stages and load the trays of the temporary rack into the cart all at once. That is the point. Since the carts 73 and 74 are provided next to the tray transfer line 71, the cart 7
Although it is difficult to put in and take out 3,74, there is an advantage that the line length becomes short.

Further, the tray loading device of the present invention is applicable not only to the tray on which the tableware on which the meal is served is placed, but also to the tray on which the ordinary tableware and the tray on which the article other than the tableware is placed. Is.

[0038]

The tray loading device according to the first aspect of the present invention does not load the trays one by one into a cart that is difficult to push, but rather mounts the tray on a temporary rack having shelves corresponding to the number of stages of the cart. Since the trays are loaded into the cart all at once, it is possible to transfer the trays to the temporary storage rack one by one at a high speed, and to slowly push the trays from the temporary storage rack toward the cart all at once. As a result, it is possible to load the tray into the cart at a high speed as a whole, which is equivalent to a human hand, and there is an effect that the arrangement of dishes on the tray is not disturbed.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the second aspect, even if the height accuracy of the partition plate of the cart varies, the tray can be smoothly pushed out to the cart by the shelf of the temporary storage rack along the rack. It is possible to prevent rattling of tableware and the like and catching of the tray that occur when pushing out all at once, and to enable relatively high speed extrusion.

According to the tray loading apparatus of the third aspect, stable insertion can be performed by supporting a wide portion of the lower surface of the tray.
It is possible to prevent rattling of tableware and the like and catching of the tray that occur when inserting each tray, and it is possible to insert at a relatively high speed.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the tray can be inserted into the temporary rack while the tray is being pushed into the cart, and therefore the trays can be continuously loaded into two carts.

In the tray loading apparatus according to the fifth aspect, since the tray flow direction is constant and the cart station is provided at the final end of the tray loading apparatus, the equipment can be arranged so that the cart can be easily taken in and out.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view of a tray loading device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a trace stocker having a temporary rack.

3 is a view on arrow A in FIG. 2. FIG.

FIG. 4 is an operation diagram showing transfer of trays to a temporary rack.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a structure of a temporary rack.

FIG. 6 is an operation diagram showing loading of trays from the temporary rack to the cart.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of another tray loading device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a cart.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a tray.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Inserting device 2 Trace stocker 3,4 Temporary placing rack 5,6 Extruding device 7,8 Cart station 15 Belts 22, 23, 24 Slide moving means of temporary placing rack 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 Up and down of temporary placing rack Direction moving means 43 Shelf 61 Abutting plate 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Shelf position switching means 101 Cart 106 Shelf board 111 Tray A First position B, C Second position

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Kosei Takada 100 Takegahana-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd., Ise Works (72) Inventor Toshimichi 100 Taketakena-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd.Ise Works ( 72) Inventor Katsuhiko Furumori 100, Takegahana Town, Ise City, Mie Prefecture Shinko Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A tray loading device for loading a plurality of trays with dishes and the like having in-flight meals on a transportable cart, the inserting device inserting each tray one by one. A temporary placement rack having multiple stages of shelves for temporarily placing trays to be inserted by the insertion device, an extrusion device for simultaneously extruding multiple stages of trays temporarily placed on the temporary placement rack, and an extrusion device for extruding the trays. And a cart station for installing a cart at a position for receiving the tray, the temporary storage rack is movable in the vertical direction for each pitch of the shelves, and the first position for the insertion device and the second position for the extrusion device. A tray loading device that can move freely between positions. 2. The shelf of the temporary rack is provided so as to be vertically movable with respect to the rack body, and can be switched between a predetermined pitch position when the tray is inserted by the insertion device and a position along the step of the cart. The tray loading device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The tray loading device according to claim 1, wherein the shelves of the temporary rack support both ends of the trays, and the insertion device is a conveyor belt extending between the shelves. 4. The tray loading device according to claim 1, wherein there are two sets of each of the temporary storage rack and the pushing device, and the second position is arranged on both sides of the first position. 5. The tray loading device according to claim 1, wherein the insertion direction of the insertion device and the extrusion direction of the extrusion device with respect to the temporary rack are parallel and in the same direction.