JPH09220538A - Bottle arranging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bottle arranging apparatus capable of arranging bottles while automatically separating broken bottles or other foreign matter getting mixed in bottles to be arranged. SOLUTION: A first conveyor 9 receiving bottles to feed them in a predetermined direction and the second conveyor 10 arranged to the side edge of the feed surface 9a of the first conveyor 9 along the feed direction thereof and having a feed surface 10a almost crossing the feed surface of the first conveyor 9 at a right angle are provided and the feed surface of the first conveyor 9 is inclined so that the side part on the arranging side of the second conveyor 10 of the feed surface thereof is positioned under the other side part thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used, for example, in a bottle sorter that sorts bottles by color, and the bins are sorted into a sorter of this bottle sorter in a form suitable for sorting. The present invention relates to a bottle sorting device adapted to supply bottles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this kind of bottle aligning device,
For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-214007, a hopper into which bottles are loaded and a large number of bottles placed in the hopper, which are arranged so as to face each other in the lower opening of the hopper, are arranged one by one. In addition, there is known a device including a discharging mechanism that discharges in a predetermined posture and an inclined plate that sends the bottles discharged from the discharging mechanism to a conveyor.

In such a bottle aligning device, the bottles fed from the discharging mechanism through the inclined plate are sequentially conveyed by the conveying conveyor in a direction substantially orthogonal to the discharging direction of the inclined plate. By doing so, a predetermined interval is formed between the bottles discharged first and the bottles discharged later, and the bottles are sent to the sorting device for the bottles in the subsequent stage.

[0004]

By the way, in such a conventional bottle aligning device, there still remain the following problems to be improved.

That is, when the above-mentioned bottles are collected together with municipal waste and non-combustible waste, the collected products include broken bottles, empty cans, milk packs, PET bottles, plastic bags, etc. If the collected items are put into the conventional bottle sorting device, the conventional bottle sorting device does not have a function of separating only the bins having the color-discriminating shape. However, there is a problem in that other foreign substances and the like are sent to the bin sorting device in the subsequent stage, which causes the bin sorting device to malfunction.

For example, even if the bottle is a broken bottle, the cracked surface is not uniform. Therefore, when the broken bottle passes through the color detection sensor of the sorting apparatus, a detection signal is generated due to the unevenness of the cracked opening. It is emitted irregularly, and it is erroneously detected that a plurality of detected objects have passed though it is a single detected object.

When such an erroneous detection is made,
It is assumed that the operation timing of the color-by-color discharge mechanism provided in the subsequent stage is affected, and the discharge for each color is not performed accurately.

Further, if the above-mentioned foreign matter other than the bottle is sent to the sorting device for bottles, the function of the sorting device is naturally impaired.

In order to solve such a problem, conventionally, the broken bottles and other foreign substances are removed before the collected bottles are put into the bottle aligning apparatus. Not only is it necessary to rely on human labor, which not only causes the processing cost to rise, but also involves the handling of broken bottles and the work of transporting separated items, which is not preferable in terms of working environment.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it automatically separates cracked bottles and other foreign substances mixed in the bottles to be aligned while It is an object to be solved to provide a bottle sorting device that can perform sorting.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the bottle sorter according to the first aspect of the present invention has the following features.
A first conveyor into which bottles are loaded and conveys the bottles in a predetermined direction, and a first conveyor which is arranged along a conveying direction at a side edge of a conveying surface of the first conveyor. A second conveyor having a conveyance surface substantially orthogonal to the surface, and the conveyance surface of the first conveyor has a side portion on the side of the conveyance surface on which the second conveyor is disposed more than other side portions. It is characterized in that it is inclined so as to be located below.

The bottle aligning device according to a second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first aspect, the transport speed of the first conveyor is different from the transport speed of the second conveyor.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the bottle aligning device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the transport surface is above the transport surface of the first conveyor and on the upstream side in the transport direction. A guide member having a guide surface that is substantially orthogonal to the first conveyor and gradually approaches the second conveyor as it goes downstream in the transport direction of the first conveyor is provided.

A bottle aligning device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the bottle aligning device according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the bottle is arranged at a position above the conveying surface of the first conveyor and spaced from the second conveyor by a predetermined distance. The conveyance path of the first conveyor is divided into two in the width direction, and a foreign matter mixing prevention member that is deformed to the second conveyor side when a load larger than a set load is applied is provided. .

A bottle aligning device according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the bottle sorting device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects.
Above the transport surface of the conveyor, on the downstream side in the transport direction,
According to the first guide surface which is substantially orthogonal to the transport surface and which is downstream of the first conveyor in the transport direction, and gradually to the first guide surface which is separated from the second conveyor, and the downstream of the first conveyor in the transport direction. It is characterized in that a foreign matter separating member having a second guide surface that gradually approaches the second conveyor is provided.

Further, the bottle aligning device according to claim 6 of the present invention is the bottle aligning device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the conveying surface of the second conveyor is provided at a predetermined interval along the conveying direction. It is characterized in that a plurality of engaging projections are provided.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment,
This shows an example in which the collected bottles W are sorted by color to be applied to a bottle sorter 1, and the collected bottles W and the like are loaded into the bottle sorter 1, and
These bottles W, etc., which are discharged while being temporarily aligned, and the bottles W that are discharged from the bottles supply device 2 are connected to the downstream side of the bottles supply device 2 and are connected to the downstream side. While transporting toward,
The bins aligning device 3 according to the present embodiment that separates the color-identifiable bins W from the color-inappropriate bins W and other foreign matter D while aligning the color-identifiable bins W, and the bins. The sorting device 4 is arranged downstream of the aligning device 3 and is configured roughly with a sorting device 4 that sorts the bins W supplied from the bin sorting device 3 by color.

Next, the details will be described. In the bottle feeding device 2, the base 5, the hopper 7 mounted on the base 5 via the spring 6, and the hopper 7 are vibrated. And a shaker 8 for giving.

The hopper 7 is composed of a loading hopper 7a into which the recovered material A is loaded, and an aligning hopper 7b connected to the downstream side of the loading hopper 7a.
7b is vibrated by the vibration exciter 8, so that the collected material A introduced into the input hopper 7a is moved from the input hopper 7a to the alignment hopper 7b, and while the alignment hopper 7b is moved. The bottles are aligned and sent to the bottle aligning device 3.

The bottle sorting device 3 according to the present embodiment
Is a first conveyor 9 that receives the recovered materials A fed from the bottle supply device 2 and conveys them toward the downstream side, and a conveying direction on the side edge of the conveying surface 9a of the first conveyor 9. And a second conveyor 10 having a transport surface 10a that is substantially orthogonal to the transport surface 9a of the first conveyor 9, and the transport surface 9a of the first conveyor 9 is the transport surface. The side portion of the surface 9a on the side where the second conveyor 10 is disposed is inclined so as to be located below the other side portions.

More specifically, the first conveyor 9 has a wide endless conveyor belt 11, a pair of rollers 12 around which the conveyor belt 11 is wound, and one of these rollers 12 is continuously provided. The conveyor belt 11
The conveyor belt 11 is provided with a drive mechanism (not shown) for moving the vehicle (see FIG. 2).
On the left side in the transport direction,
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, it is inclined so as to be lower than the other side portion.

The inclination angle α of the conveying surface 9a with respect to the horizontal plane is set in the range of 5 ° <α <15 °, and the conveyor belt 11 is positioned above the upstream end thereof. The discharging portion of the alignment hopper 7b is located above the side.

The second conveyor 10 has a pair of rollers 13 disposed at both ends of the first conveyor 9 in the carrying direction, the rollers 13 being disposed substantially orthogonal to the carrying surface 9a.
The conveyor belt 14 wound between the rollers 13 and the roller 13
And a drive mechanism (not shown) that drives the conveyor belt 14 to run. The conveyor belt 14 is, as shown in FIG. The conveyor belt 10 is arranged at a slight distance from the conveyor belt 11, and the conveyor surface 10a of the conveyor belt 14 is held at a right angle to the conveyor surface 9a of the first conveyor 9. There is.

Further, in the present embodiment, the foreign matter stocker 15 is disposed so as to face the lower end of the first conveyor 9 on the downstream side and is biased to the side positioned above the conveyor belt 11. There is.

On the other hand, in the bin sorting device 4, from the side portion on the side where the second conveyor 10 is arranged, below the lower end portion on the downstream side of the conveyor belt 11 constituting the first conveyor 9, An endless conveyor belt 16 is provided that extends toward the downstream side in the transport direction, is disposed along the transport direction, a pair of rollers 17 around which the conveyor belt 16 is wound, and these rollers 17. A driving mechanism (not shown) that is connected in series to drive the conveyor belt 16 and the color of the bottle W that is disposed on one side of the conveyor belt 16 and that is conveyed on the conveyor belt 16. A plurality of color detection mechanisms 18 for detecting the color detection mechanism 18 are provided downstream of the color detection mechanism 18 at predetermined intervals, and are based on a detection signal from the color detection mechanism 18 and a signal related to the convey distance of the conveyor belt 16. Te, a payout mechanism 19 for paying out to the conveyor belt 16 outside the bottle W conveyed on the conveyor belt 16 for each color, each payout mechanism 1
The plurality of chutes 20 are provided corresponding to the bins 9 and guide the bins W sorted by the colors dispensed by these to a dedicated stocker (not shown).

Below the lower end of the conveyor belt 16, the color detection mechanism 18 does not detect the color, and the unidentifiable bottle W that has not been dispensed by the dispensing mechanism 19 or ceramic or A foreign matter collection hopper 21 for dropping and collecting cans is provided.

Further, on the upstream side of the color detecting mechanism 18, the interval between the front and rear bins W is detected, and when it is determined that these intervals are narrower than the treatment interval, the bin W located at the rear is set. A payout mechanism 22 for paying out from the conveyor belt 16 to the outside is also provided, and a chute 23 for guiding the bin W paid out by the payout mechanism 22 to a recovery hopper (not shown) is provided on the opposite side of the conveyor belt 16. It is provided on the side of.

Next, the operation of the bottle sorter 1 to which the bottle sorter 3 according to this embodiment having such a structure is applied will be described.

First, after each drive mechanism is operated to start the operation of each operating portion, a predetermined amount of the recovered material A is put in the input hopper 7a of the bottle feeder 2 as shown in FIG. throw into.

The recovered material A thus loaded into the loading hopper 7a is fed by the vibrator 8 to the loading hopper 7a.
Since the alignment hopper 7b is vibrated, the alignment hopper 7b is moved from the input hopper 7a toward the alignment hopper 7b, and then the alignment hopper 7b is aligned in a substantially single line while being moved. From the end of the aligning hopper 7b, the aligning device 3 is dropped to the side of the aligning device 3 having the inclined conveying surface 9a, which is located at a high position of the first conveyor 9.

The recovered material A dropped on the first conveyor 9 is conveyed toward the downstream side in the conveying direction of the sorting apparatus 1 as the conveyor belt 11 travels. By being inclined in the width direction, the unbroken bin W and the small bottle W having a small chipped portion are formed along the inclination of the conveyor belt 11 as shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. , It rolls down toward the second conveyor 10, and its fall is stopped when it abuts against this second conveyor 10, and in the process of this fall, most of the bottles W Is automatically parallel to the transfer surface 10a of the second conveyor 10 while reaching the second conveyor 10.

Therefore, most of the bins W dropped on the first conveyor 9 are adjusted to be in a posture parallel to the second conveyor 10, that is, parallel to the conveying direction.

On the other hand, in the case where there is a large chipping, for example, in the case of a radially broken bottle such as the bottle indicated by the symbol F in FIG. 1 or a bottom-only bottle such as the symbol G in FIG. In the case of the former with respect to the transport surface 9a of the 1 conveyor 9,
A stable state is achieved by contacting the cracked portion at a plurality of points, and in the latter case, making a circular contact at the bottom.

Further, in the milk pack or the like indicated by the symbol H in FIG. 1, since its side surface is a flat surface, it is brought into surface contact with the carrying surface 9a and becomes in a stable state.

Therefore, when such foreign matter such as a chipped bottle and other milk packs H is dropped onto the conveyor belt 11 of the first conveyor 9, the movement is stopped immediately or after a slight movement, The conveyor belt 11 is conveyed above the inclined surface while being stopped.

As described above, the inclination of the conveyor belt 11 moves the bins without chipping or the bins W with few chips to the side of the second conveyor 10 located below the inclined surface of the conveyor belt 11, and others. Bins F and G and other foreign matter H with large chipping of the conveyor belt 1
By being stopped above 1, they are conveyed while being separated from each other.

Then, the bin W separated as described above
Is a sorting device 4 which is located forward of the conveying direction.
After being conveyed toward the conveyor belt 16, the conveyor belt 16 is dropped onto the conveyor belt 16 to be sent from the first conveyor 9 to the sorting device 4, and above the inclined surface of the first conveyor 9. Bins F and G and other foreign matter H having large nicks that have been stopped at are transported above the inclined surface of the first conveyor 9 and dropped into the foreign matter stocker 15 installed on the downstream side thereof. Be recovered.

On the other hand, the bin W sent to the sorting device 4
As in the conventional case, while being conveyed by the conveyor belt 16 and being passed through the color detecting mechanism 18, the color is detected, and the detected bin W corresponds to the color based on the information. Payout mechanism 19
When the sheet is conveyed to, the corresponding payout mechanism 19 is operated to be stored in the storage hopper via the chute 20.

Therefore, even when the collected material A containing foreign matter is thrown in, only the bottles W that do not hinder the sorting operation in the sorting apparatus 4 are sent to the sorting apparatus 4 while being aligned. As a result, the sorting apparatus 4 In addition to suppressing the occurrence of malfunctions in No. 4, labor is saved because foreign matter is automatically removed, and the working environment is expected to improve because there is no need to directly handle a missing bottle or the like. To be done.

On the other hand, the bin W on the first conveyor 9
At the time of the separating operation, the bin W is moved so as to roll toward the second conveyor 10, but depending on the supply form from the bottle supply device 2, the second conveyor 10 may be used.
It is conceivable that a state may occur in which another bin W is superposed on the bin W that is in contact with the other from above in the tilt direction of the first conveyor 9.

When such a state occurs, the two bottles W are conveyed in parallel and then sent to the sorting device 4 in the subsequent stage while keeping the parallel state, whereby the colors to be paid out. Set payout mechanism 19
In, there are cases where different color bins W are dispensed.

When it is predicted that this situation will occur, for example, the above-mentioned overlapping of the bins W can be prevented by making the conveying speeds of the first conveyor 9 and the second conveyor 10 different from each other. Is.

For example, by making the conveying speed of the second conveyor 10 higher than the conveying speed of the first conveyor 9, the second conveyor 10 is positioned below the upper bin W which is in contact with only the first conveyor 9. The bins W being stacked are quickly conveyed by the second conveyor 10, and a speed difference is forcibly given to the overlapped bins W, whereby the bins W vertically stacked are relatively moved in the conveying direction. The superposed state is eliminated, and these are arranged in series along the transport direction.

Therefore, even in the case where the overlapping phenomenon of the bins W occurs as described above, the problem can be easily solved by only changing the operation mode of the first conveyor 9 and the second conveyor 10 described above.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

The bottle aligning device according to the present embodiment, which is designated by reference numeral 30 in these figures, is installed between the bottle feeding device 2 and the bin sorting device 4 having the same configuration as the above embodiment. Is.

More specifically, the bottle aligning device 30 includes
As shown in FIG. 3, the first conveyor 31 is inclined at an angle α with respect to the horizontal plane, and the first conveyor 31 is arranged along the carrying direction at the side edge of the carrying surface, and A second conveyor 32 having a transfer surface 32a that is substantially orthogonal to the transfer surface 31a of the first conveyor 31;
It is arranged above the transport surface 31a of the conveyor 31 and on the upstream side in the transport direction thereof, and is substantially orthogonal to the transport surface 31a, and
As it goes downstream in the transport direction of the first conveyor 31,
The guide member 33 having a guide surface 33a that gradually approaches the second conveyor 32, and the guide member 33 that is disposed above the transport surface 31a of the first conveyor 31 at a position separated from the second conveyor 32 by a predetermined distance, The conveyance path of the first conveyor 31 is divided into two in the width direction thereof, and the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34 is deformed to the second conveyor 32 side when a load larger than a set load is applied, and the first conveyor 3
Is arranged on the downstream side in the transport direction above the transport surface of 1.
The first conveyor 31 is substantially orthogonal to the transport surface 31a.
The first guide surface 35a that gradually separates from the second conveyor 32 as it goes to the downstream side in the transport direction, and gradually approaches the second conveyor 32 as it goes to the downstream side in the transport direction of the first conveyor 31. And a foreign matter separating member 35 having a second guide surface 35b.

Next, these details will be explained.
The first conveyor 31 includes an endless conveyor belt 36 that forms the transport surface 31 a, and the conveyor belt 3
A pair of rollers 37 around which 6 is wound, and the transport surface 31a.
A pair of idle rollers 38, which are arranged in parallel between the pair of rollers 37 below the idle roller 38 and around which the conveyor belt 36 is wound, and below the idle rollers 38, the idle rollers 38 The tension roller 39 is located in the middle and is wound around the idler roller 38, and the conveyor belt 36 is wound around the tension roller 39. Each of these rollers 37 to 39 is shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 5, by being rotatably attached to the base 40 assembled in a frame shape with the inclination of the angle α described above, the conveyor belt 36 wound around them is The table 40 is mounted so that it can travel freely.

In addition, one of the pair of rollers 37 is
As shown in FIG. 6, an electric motor 41 as a drive source attached to the base 40 is connected via a drive belt 42, and the rotation of the electric motor 41 is transmitted via the drive belt 42. By being transmitted to the roller 37, the conveyor belt 36 wound around the roller 37 can be run in a predetermined direction.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the roller 37 around which the drive belt 42 of the pair of rollers 37 is wound.
A tension adjusting mechanism 41a for adjusting the winding tension of the drive belt 42 by moving the electric motor 41 along the conveying direction of the conveyor belt 36 between the base 40 and the base 40. Further, the tension roller 39 is provided with a tension adjusting mechanism 44 for adjusting the tension applied to the conveyor belt 36. Further, the tension adjusting mechanism 44 or the pair of rollers 37 is moved in the carrying direction to convey the conveyor belt. And a meandering adjusting mechanism 43 for adjusting the meandering of 36 and 36, respectively.

The second conveyor 32 is arranged at each of the upstream end and the downstream end of the conveyor belt 36 of the first conveyor 31 in the transport direction so as to be substantially orthogonal to the transport surface 32a. Pair of rollers 45 and an endless conveyor belt 4 wound between these rollers 45
6 and a plurality of protrusions 47 projecting from the conveyor surface of the conveyor belt 46 at predetermined intervals in the conveying direction, and the pair of rollers 45 form the base 4
The second conveyor 32 is attached to the base 40 by being rotatably attached to the bracket 48 attached to 0.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, an electric motor 49 connected to one of the rollers 45 forming the second conveyor 32 is attached to the bracket 48. When one of the rollers 45 is rotationally driven by the motor 49, the second
The conveyor belt 46 of the conveyor 32 is made to run.

The guide member 33 disposed on the upstream side of the first conveyor 31 is, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4,
The material A to be collected on the first conveyor 31 of the bottle supply device 2 is disposed at a substantially middle portion in the width direction of the first conveyor 31.
Of the first conveyor 31 on the guide surface 33a side (that is, on the higher side of the inclined surface of the first conveyor 31) than the input position of the recovered material A. Are being put in.

The inclination angle β of the guide member 33 with respect to the conveying direction of the first conveyor 31 is 20 ° to 6 °.
It is set within the range of 0 °, and its downstream end is positioned so that a predetermined space is formed between it and the second conveyor 32. As shown in FIG.
8 is attached via a stay 50.

In the present embodiment, the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 has a blind-like structure in which one ends of a large number of chains are connected to each other and the free ends thereof hang downward. It is installed so as to be parallel to the transfer surface 32a of the second conveyor 32 from the downstream end,
The length is about half the length of the transport path of the first conveyor 31, and is attached to the bracket 48 via a stay 51.

As described above, the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34 is held stationary by the weight of each of its constituent chains, and when a load greater than the static force is applied by the weight, It can be swung about the fixed end.

Therefore, the bin W, which is a comparatively heavy object mixed in the collected material A put on the first conveyor 31, rolls on the conveyor belt 36 and reaches the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34. When abutting, the weight of the bin W causes the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 to swing toward the second conveyor 32 side, thereby allowing passage of the bin W to the second conveyor 32, and When relatively lightweight foreign substances such as the milk carton H and the PET bottle are brought into contact with each other, the falling of these foreign substances is stopped to prevent the foreign substances from passing to the second conveyor 32 side.

The foreign matter separating member 35 has the first
The first separating plate 51 forming the guide surface 35a and the second separating plate 52 forming the second guiding surface are configured by being connected in a V shape, and the top portion thereof is the foreign matter mixing prevention member. It is attached to the bracket 48 via a stay 53 so as to be positioned near the downstream end of 34.

The distance between the upstream end of the second separating plate 52 and the second conveyor 32 is set to be slightly larger than about twice the expected diameter of the bin W to be charged. The distance between the downstream end and the second conveyor 32 is set to be slightly larger than the diameter of the bin W.

The second separating plate 52 has an end portion on the downstream side of the second conveyor 3 as shown by a chain line in FIG.
It is also possible to make it swingable so as to move in a direction of approaching and separating from 2. With such a configuration, for example, when the bottle W is conveyed obliquely and the tip portion thereof is chipped and is in a sharp state, it is assumed that the tip of the bottle W will pierce the second separation plate 52. Therefore, when the bottle W is conveyed diagonally like this,
The above-mentioned inconvenience is eliminated by the escape of the second separating plate 42.

Next, the operation of the bottle aligning device 30 according to the present embodiment having the above-described structure will be described. First, the recovered material A from the bottle supplying device 2 shown in the above-mentioned embodiment is the first. At the upstream end of the conveyor 31, the conveyor 31 is loaded at a high position on the inclined surface.

The recovered material A thus put into the first conveyor 31 is conveyed toward the downstream side by the first conveyor 31, and the first conveyor 31 is inclined in the width direction of the conveying direction. Therefore, the bottle with a small chip or the bottle W without a chip is dropped while rolling to the lower side of the first conveyor 31 and brought into contact with the guide member 33 located below, After the falling speed is reduced, the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 on the downstream side is sent.

On the other hand, the other foreign matter D is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 6, depending on the posture at the time of insertion, the first conveyer 31 drops downward on the conveying surface 31a, and becomes a stable posture when the conveying surface 31a is moved for a predetermined distance. When the drop is stopped or the guide member 33 is brought into contact with the guide member 33, the force of the drop is reduced, so that the stable state described above is achieved and the drop is stopped. It is conveyed toward the downstream side in the direction.

Further, the bottle W guided by the guide member 33 to the upper side of the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 pushes the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 by its own weight and drops onto the transport surface 31a of the second conveyor 32. By contacting the protrusion 47 projectingly provided on the transport surface 31a, the bin W is transported by the protrusion 47 with respect to the conveyor belt 46 of the second conveyor without slippage. After being conveyed to the downstream end of the first conveyor 31, the bottles are sorted into the sorting device 4.

Here, the bottle W is the bottle supply device 2
From the first conveyor 31 onto the guide member 3
3 and the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34 are dropped on the second conveyor 32 after the dropping speed is reduced by the contact with the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34, so that the dropping speed does not become excessively high, The impact force between the guide member 33 and the second conveyor 32 is suppressed to be small, and the bottle W is prevented from being cracked or chipped after being put into the bottle aligning device 30.

On the other hand, the bin W thus dropped onto the second conveyor 32 may be dropped not in a single state but in a state of being superposed in the dropping direction as shown in FIG.

When the conveyance is continued in such a superposed state, these bins W are moved to the second position of the foreign matter separating member 35.
When the bin W located above is conveyed to the separating plate 52, the movement of the bin W located above is stopped by bringing the bin W located above into contact with the second guide surface 35b of the second separating plate 52, and the bin located below is located. W is forcibly transferred by the protrusion 47 protruding from the conveyor belt 46 of the second conveyor 32, so that the bin W positioned above the W
Are fed to the rear of the bin W located below, and the two bins W that have been in a superposed state are aligned in a serial state.

Further, as described in the above embodiment, the separation operation described above can be realized by setting the transport speed of the second conveyor 32 higher than the transport speed of the first conveyor 31.

In this case, when there is a sufficient transport distance between the superposed bin W and the foreign matter separating member 35, the bin W located above is the foreign matter separating member. Before being abutted against 35, it is separated from the bin W located below and fed to the rear thereof.

The bin W sent backward is provided with a difference in the conveying speed between the first conveyor 31 and the second conveyor 32, as described above, so that the separated bin W is separated from the conveyor belt 46. Protrusion 47 protruding from
Will be securely engaged to the aligned bin W
The pitch of is made constant.

Further, the other foreign matters F, G, and H are transferred to the conveyor belt 36 of the first conveyor 31 as described above.
After being transported to the downstream side, the foreign matter stocker 15 is dropped and collected.

Then, of these foreign matters, if a bin or the like having a large chipping is not moved to the lower position of the first conveyor 31 from the above-mentioned stop position under some condition, these foreign matters are already in a stable posture. Therefore, when the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 is brought into contact with the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34, its downward movement is easily prevented, and the foreign matter separation member 35 provided downstream of the foreign matter mixture prevention member 34 is 1 separation plate 5
It is guided by the first first guide surface 35a and dropped onto the foreign matter stocker 15.

For foreign substances such as PET bottles,
Although the posture on the inclined surface is not stable, it is a comparatively lightweight object, so that it is prevented from falling when it comes into contact with the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34, and the first separating plate of the foreign matter separating member 35 is prevented. After being sent to 51, it is conveyed toward the foreign matter stocker 15 by its first guide surface 35a.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the first
The recovered material A put into the conveyor 31 is brought into contact with the guide member 33 and the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34 during the fall, and the falling speed and the impact are reduced,
The occurrence of chips, cracks, etc., after the bin W is loaded is suppressed, and the foreign matter and the bottle W are prevented by the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34.
And the separated foreign matter and the bin W are separated by the foreign matter separating member 35.
Then, it is surely fed to the bin sorting device 4 arranged in the subsequent stage.

Even when the separated bins W are overlapped with each other, the bins W are installed on the downstream side in the transport direction due to the difference in transport speed between the first conveyor 31 and the second conveyor 32. In cooperation with the foreign matter separating member 35 and the protrusion 47 provided on the conveyor belt 46 of the second conveyor 32, the upper bin W is fed to the rear of the lower bin W, thereby straightening them. And the bins W are adjusted to a predetermined pitch by the protrusions 47 and fed into the bin sorting device 4.

The shapes, sizes, etc. of the constituent members shown in each of the above embodiments are merely examples, and can be variously changed based on design requirements and the like.

For example, the inclination angle α of the first conveyor 9 (31) and the inclination angle β of the guide member 33 are appropriately set within the respective ranges described above according to the type of the recovered material A to be input. The guide member 3
3, the foreign matter mixing prevention member 34, the foreign matter separating member 35, and the protrusion 47 can be used alone or in an appropriate combination.

[0078]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention.
According to the bottle aligning device of the present invention, by tilting the first conveyor along the width direction of the transport direction, the bins in the collected waste to be fed are utilized by the second conveyor by rolling the bottles. The separated bottles can be transported to the downstream side in the transport direction by the cooperation of the first conveyor and the second conveyor.

Therefore, it is possible to prevent the malfunction of the processing apparatus by automatically supplying only the well-shaped bottles to the processing apparatus such as the latter-stage bin sorting apparatus, and to automatically transfer the bottles from other foreign substances. By separating and separating and carrying out in line, it is possible to eliminate the manual work of separating foreign matter, and to greatly save labor.

According to the bin sorting apparatus of the second aspect of the present invention, the bins to be superposed in the inclination direction of the first conveyor are made different by making the transport speed of the first conveyor different from the transport speed of the second conveyor. By providing a speed difference, it is possible to align the bins that overlap in the tilt direction of the first conveyor in a line in the transport direction, and supply the bottles one by one to the subsequent processing device, The processing of can be made reliable.

According to the bottle aligning apparatus of the third aspect of the present invention, above the conveying surface of the first conveyor, on the upstream side in the conveying direction thereof, substantially orthogonal to the conveying surface, and in the first conveyor. As it goes downstream in the transport direction, the second
By providing a guide member having a guide surface that approaches the conveyor, the bottles thrown onto the first conveyor are brought into contact with the guide member during the fall thereof to reduce the falling speed, and thus the bottles It is possible to prevent the occurrence of cracks and chips due to the collision of the.

According to the bottle sorting apparatus of the fourth aspect of the present invention, the transport path of the first conveyor is provided at a position above the transport surface of the first conveyor and separated from the second conveyor by a predetermined distance. By providing a foreign matter mixing prevention member that is divided into two in the width direction and that is deformed to the second conveyor side when a load greater than a set load acts, the foreign matter mixing prevention member prevents foreign matter other than bottles that easily rolls. Only the bottles can be separated and sent to the second conveyor, and it is possible to prevent foreign matter from being sent to the subsequent processing device.

Further, according to the bottle aligning device of the fifth aspect of the present invention, above the carrying surface of the first conveyor,
On the downstream side in the transport direction, substantially orthogonal to the transport surface, and
A first guide surface that gradually separates from the second conveyor as it goes downstream in the transport direction of the first conveyor;
By gradually providing the foreign matter separating member having a second guide surface approaching the second conveyor, the separated bottles and other foreign matter are guided to the first guide as the downstream side of the conveyor in the conveying direction. By guiding with the surface and the second guide surface, it is possible to surely prevent remixing of both.

Further, according to the bottle aligning apparatus of the sixth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of engaging projections are provided on the carrying surface of the second conveyor at predetermined intervals along the carrying direction.
The separated bottles are brought into contact with the engaging projections to
By transporting the conveyor without slipping, the transport can be ensured and the transport pitch of the bottles can be made constant.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an outline of a bottle sorting apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a main part of the bottle sorting device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of a main part of a bottle aligning device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a bottle aligning device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a bottle aligning device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view of a bottle aligning device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an external perspective view for explaining the operation of the bottle sorting device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an external perspective view for explaining the operation of the bottle aligning device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Bins Aligning Device 9 First Conveyor 9a Conveying Surface 10 Second Conveyor 10a Conveying Surface 30 Bottles Aligning Device 31 First Conveyor 31a Conveying Surface 32 Second Conveyor 32a Conveying Surface 33 Guide Member 33a Guide Surface 34 Foreign Material Mixing Prevention Member 35 Foreign matter separating member 35a First guide surface 35b Second guide surface 47 Protrusion

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A first conveyor into which bottles are loaded and which conveys the bottles in a predetermined direction, and a first conveyor which is disposed along a conveying direction at a side edge of a conveying surface of the first conveyor, A second conveyor having a transportation surface substantially orthogonal to the transportation surface of the first conveyor, wherein the transportation surface of the first conveyor is a side portion of the transportation surface on which the second conveyor is disposed. The bottle aligning device, which is inclined so as to be located below the side portion of the bottle. 2. The bottle aligning device according to claim 1, wherein a transport speed of the first conveyor and a transport speed of the second conveyor are different from each other. 3. Above the carrying surface of the first conveyor, on the upstream side in the carrying direction thereof, substantially orthogonal to the carrying surface, and
3. A guide member having a guide surface that gradually approaches the second conveyor as it goes downstream in the transport direction of the first conveyor. 3. Bottle sorting equipment. 4. The first conveyor is provided at a position above the transport surface of the first conveyor and separated from the second conveyor by a predetermined distance.
The foreign material mixture prevention member is provided which divides the conveyor conveying path into two in the width direction and is deformed to the second conveyor side when a load equal to or more than a set load is applied. The bottle aligning device according to claim 3. 5. An upper side of the transfer surface of the first conveyor, on the downstream side in the transfer direction thereof, substantially orthogonal to the transfer surface, and
A first guide surface that gradually separates from the second conveyor as it goes downstream in the transport direction of the first conveyor;
5. The foreign matter separating member having a second guide surface that gradually approaches the second conveyor as it goes downstream in the transport direction of the conveyor, according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The bottle sorting device described. 6. The carrying surface of the second conveyor is provided with a plurality of engaging projections at predetermined intervals along the carrying direction thereof, according to any one of claims 1 to 5. An apparatus for aligning bottles according to item 1.