JPH092653A - Sorting mechanism and sorting device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] To provide a sorting mechanism and an efficient sorting device using the sorting device, which are capable of performing sorting work of goods at high speed and smoothly in a small space. [Structure] The articles 9 on the transport conveyor 3 are rotated in directions opposite to each other on surfaces substantially perpendicular to the transport surface of the transport conveyor 3, and the articles 9 on one of the left and right sides of the transport conveyor 3 are delivered to either one of the dispensing sections 4. The sorting mechanism 6 is composed of a pair of left and right payout belts 61, 61. The articles 9 carried leftward or rightward with respect to the center position in the width direction of the conveyor 3 are conveyed on the conveyor 3 and reach the position of the sorting mechanism 6, the articles 9 are conveyed by the conveyor 3 of the sorting mechanism 6. Of the pair of left and right dispensing belts 61, 61 rotating on a plane substantially perpendicular to the conveying surface of the sorting mechanism 6, and is dispensed by the dispensing belt 61 from the dispensing unit 4 located on the side of the sorting mechanism 6. Be done.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sorting mechanism and a sorting device used in a shipping yard of a factory, a distribution center, or the like to dispense articles conveyed on a conveyor to the left and right sides of the conveyor. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional sorting device which dispenses articles conveyed on a conveyor from a dispensing section provided on both the left and right sides of the conveyor is a push-type horizontal width-shifting type There are formula chain type etc. As shown in FIG. 6, in the extruding-type horizontal width-sorting type sorting device, a mounting surface of a conveyor 21 that conveys articles 20 is composed of a large number of slats 22.
A shoe 23 is slidably provided on each of the two. The shoe 23 has a structure in which the articles 20 on the slats 22 are horizontally delivered from the conveyor 21 at the delivery section 24. Further, in the retractable chain type, as shown in FIG. 7, a sorting mechanism composed of a transport chain 33 protruding and retracting from between the rollers 32 is arranged in a payout section 34 of a roller conveyor 31 for transporting articles. The articles 35 conveyed by the roller conveyor 31 are
When it is transported to the target dispensing unit 34, the transport chain 3
3 projects upward from between the rollers 32, the article 35 rides on the transport chain 33, and is rotated to the side of the roller conveyor 31 by the rotation of the transport chain 33.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned push-out type horizontal width-sorting type sorting apparatus, since the movement of the shoes is carried out in accordance with the conveying operation of the conveyor, a large space is required for installing the sorting apparatus. There was a problem. Further, in the retractable chain type sorting device, since it is necessary to convey the articles by the roller conveyor,
There is a problem that it is unsuitable for an article whose bottom surface is not flat or a small article. Therefore, the present invention solves the problems of the conventional sorting device as described above, and a sorting mechanism capable of performing the sorting work of articles at high speed and smoothly in a small space, and the efficiency using the sorting device. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a general sorting device.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a sorting mechanism of the present invention rotates articles in a direction substantially perpendicular to a conveying surface of a conveying conveyor in opposite directions to convey articles on the conveying conveyor. It has a pair of left and right payout belts for paying out to either one of the payout portions arranged on both the left and right sides of the conveyor. Further, the sorting device of the present invention includes a transport conveyor having a flat transport surface provided with a plurality of dispensing parts on the left and right sides in the transport direction, and a sorting device configured to reciprocate along the transport conveyor. And a mechanism. The sorting device, upstream of the conveyor,
It is preferable to arrange a left and right sorting conveyor for sorting articles into the left and right and carrying them in with respect to the center of the width direction of the transport conveyor.

[0005]

The operation of the sorting mechanism of the present invention will be described. The articles to be sorted are arranged on the upstream side of the transport conveyor with respect to the center position in the width direction of the transport conveyor depending on which of the left and right dispensing parts of the transport conveyor is dispensed. And is biased to the left or right. The carrying-in work is performed manually or by using another conveyor or the like. When the article is transported on the transport conveyor and reaches the position of the sorting mechanism, the article comes into contact with one of a pair of left and right dispensing belts rotating on a plane substantially perpendicular to the transport surface of the transport conveyor of the sorting mechanism, By the payout belt, the payout part is paid out from the payout portion located on the side of the sorting mechanism.

Further, in the sorting apparatus of the present invention, the sorting mechanism sequentially moves articles from the delivery section on the upstream side of the conveyor to the delivery section on the downstream side to sort the articles.
In the sorting device, first, the sorting mechanism moves to a position corresponding to the payout portion on the upstream side of the transfer conveyor and stands by,
The articles conveyed by the conveyor are paid out to the specified payout section on either the right or left side.

When the work in the payout section is completed, the sorting mechanism moves to the corresponding position in the next payout section and performs the sort work in the same manner. When the sorting work is sequentially completed to the payout section on the downstream side, the sorting mechanism returns to the upstream side and waits for the next sorting work.

In the sorting apparatus described above, the articles are carried to the left or the right with respect to the center position in the width direction of the conveyor, depending on which of the left and right delivery parts the articles are to be delivered on the carry-in side of the conveyor. The carrying-in work can be carried out manually, but it is preferable to carry out by a left-right distributing conveyor arranged upstream of the carrying conveyor, and in that case, the carrying-in position of the article to the carrying conveyor is automatically carried out by the left-right distributing conveyor. By laterally distributing the articles to the left and right, the articles are accurately conveyed to the specified position of the discharging belt on the side of the discharging unit of the sorting mechanism, and a sorting error is prevented.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a sorting apparatus according to the present invention, in which a conveying conveyor 3 is connected downstream of a loading belt conveyor 1 via a left / right sorting conveyor 2. In this embodiment, the transfer conveyor 3 is composed of a belt conveyor having a flat transfer surface. It should be noted that other types of conveyors such as a slat conveyor can be used as the transfer conveyor 3 as long as they have a flat transfer surface.

The feeding belt conveyor 1 has feeding position marks 1A formed at equal intervals in the carrying direction on its carrying surface in order to send the articles 9 to be sorted to the downstream side at predetermined intervals. Further, the left-right distribution conveyor 2 is provided with a large number of shoes 2A that slide in the width direction, and before the article 9 carried in from the input belt conveyor 1 moves on the left-right distribution conveyor 2 to its downstream end, The shoe 2A slides leftward or rightward to perform an operation of moving the article 9 to the left or right side with respect to the center position in the width direction of the conveyor 3 and transferring the article 9 onto the conveyor 3. Will be described later.

The transfer conveyor 3 is provided with a plurality of payout parts 4 on both left and right sides along the transfer direction, and each of the payout parts 4 has a chute 5 for paying out an article 9 from the transfer conveyor 3. It is arranged. The shoot 5 is
The transport surface is constituted by a large number of free rollers. Also, the articles 9 that have been transported on the transport conveyor 3
In order to pay out to the shoot 5 of the designated payout unit 4,
A sorting mechanism 6 is provided so as to reciprocate along the transport conveyor 3.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the sorting mechanism 6 rotates in opposite directions on planes substantially perpendicular to the transport surface of the transport conveyor 3 to dispense articles on the transport conveyor 3. It is provided with a pair of left and right payout belts 61, 61 for paying out to. The pair of payout belts 61, 61 are provided to incline at an appropriate angle from the central position in the width direction of the conveyor 3 toward the left and right sides on the downstream side in order to smoothly perform the payout operation. Further, the payout belt 61 is stretched between the drive roller 62 and the driven roller 63,
The driven pulley 64 that rotates integrally with the drive roller 62 is driven by the drive pulley 67 of the drive source 66 via the drive belt 65, so that the surface of the payout belt 61 facing the upstream side of the transport conveyor 3 is outside. Is rotated to move to.

On both sides of the pair of left and right delivery belts 61, 61, delivery belts 71 are arranged at substantially the same height as the conveyor 3. The delivery belt 71 assists the delivery operation smoothly when the articles on the conveyor 3 are delivered by the delivery belt 61 to the chute 5 provided in the delivery unit 4 shown in FIG. Then, it is bridged between the plurality of guide rollers and is rotationally driven in the direction of sending the article to the chute 5 by a drive source (not shown).

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the arrival confirmation sensor 7 for detecting the arrival of the article 9 at the sorting mechanism 6.
2 and a payout confirmation sensor 73 for detecting that the article 9 has been paid out.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sorting mechanism 6 includes a support wheel 75 and a guide wheel 76 supported on a guide rail 74 provided along the conveyor 3 and is shown in the drawing. It can freely reciprocate along the conveyor 3 by a traveling drive means that is not provided. The traveling drive means can be configured by a known means such as a motor-driven rack and pinion mechanism or a belt transmission mechanism. Further, a traveling motor may be mounted on the sorting mechanism 6 to make it self-propelled.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a control panel 7 for controlling the operation of the sorting device is provided in the vicinity of the sorting device, and the total number and the remaining number of items being sorted by the worker are provided. A display panel 8 for displaying, etc. is installed.
A barcode reader 8A is attached to the display board 8.

Next, the sorting operation by the above-mentioned sorting apparatus will be explained. The chute 5 for each sorting destination is assigned to the control panel 7 in advance, and the sorting list for the articles 9 for each of a plurality of items is set on the control panel. Fill in 7.
A barcode for displaying the item is attached to the article 9 to be sorted, and the operator picks up one of the articles 9 by the barcode reader 8A attached to the display panel 8 and displays the barcode. read.

Based on the item information read by the bar code reader 8A and the list, the control panel 7 indicates the position of the sorting chute 5 and the number of the items 9 dispensed from the chute 5 for the item 9 to be loaded. decide. At this time, the sorting work to each chute 5 is performed in order from the one located in the payout section 4 on the upstream side of the transport conveyor 3 to the downstream side.

Next, the worker successively loads the articles 9 on the loading belt conveyor 1 at the locations where the loading position marks 1A are displayed. It is confirmed by the sensor 10 whether or not the article 9 is properly placed at the place of the insertion position mark 1A. When the articles 9 are sent from the loading belt conveyor 1 to the left / right distribution conveyor 2, the shoe 2A provided on the left / right distribution conveyor 2 is moved by the control panel 7 in accordance with the movement of the left / right distribution conveyor 2 in the conveying direction. Then, the article 9 is moved to either the left or right side, and the articles 9 are unbalancedly carried in to the left or right side where the chutes 5 to be sorted are located with respect to the widthwise center of the conveyor 3.

On the other hand, the sorting mechanism 6 stands by at the position where the chute 5 of the designated dispensing unit 4 is instructed by the instruction from the control panel 7, and the articles conveyed to the dispensing unit 4 by the transport conveyor 3. 9 is discharged to the chute 5 by the discharging belt 61 and the sending belt 71 on the discharging unit 4 side. At this time, the payout confirmation sensor 73 shown in FIG. 2 detects that the articles 9 have been paid out, and when the specified number of articles 9 have been paid out, the control panel 7 moves the sorting mechanism 6 to the downstream side. It moves to a certain next payout section 4 and continues the sorting work in the same manner.

The arrival confirmation sensor 72 shown in FIG.
After the delivery confirmation sensor 73 does not detect the delivery of the article 9 within a certain time after detecting that the article 9 has arrived at the sorting mechanism 6, it is determined that the delivery operation has failed, and the delivery is confirmed. The sensor 72 and the payout confirmation sensor 73 are combined to detect an abnormality in the payout operation.

The control panel 7 monitors the remaining number of the articles 9 of the items currently being sorted and the current position of the sorting mechanism 6, and when the sorting operation of the current items is completed, the articles 9 of the next item are sorted. Before being carried into the transport conveyor 3, the sorting mechanism 6 is instructed to return to the position of the chute 5 of the dispensing unit 4 on the most upstream side. Sorting mechanism 6 instructed
Runs on the upstream side of the conveyor 3 to prepare for the next item sorting operation. The article 9 delivered to each chute 5 is transferred by a worker to a shipping container or the like and carried out. When the article 9 is full on the chute 5,
It is detected by a full sensor (not shown) and the operator is notified by a full indicator light.

In the above-described embodiment, in order to perform the sorting work easily and accurately, the loading belt conveyor 1 and the left-right sorting conveyor 2 which are arranged upstream of the conveying conveyor 3.
Items are carried into the conveyer conveyor 3 via
The article 9 may be directly carried into the transport conveyor 3. In that case, depending on which of the left and right payout parts is to be paid out, the article 9 is directly manually carried to the left side or the right side with respect to the widthwise central position of the conveyor 3.

However, if the article 9 is carried into the conveyor 3 by hand, the carrying-in position becomes inaccurate.
In particular, if the articles 9 are carried into the vicinity of the central position in the width direction of the transport conveyor 3, the sorting mechanism 6 may cause a sorting error. Therefore, it is preferable that the articles 9 are carried into the transport conveyor 3 by the right / left sorting conveyor 2.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the sorting apparatus having the sorting mechanism of the present invention, in which the sorting mechanism 6'corresponds to the payout portions 4 arranged on the left and right sides of the conveyor 3. It is fixedly provided at the position. As shown in FIG. 5, the structure of the sorting mechanism 6 ′ is substantially the same as that of the sorting mechanism 6 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 described above. In FIG. 5, the members common to the members in FIG. 3 are the same. The numbers are displayed. However, since the sorting mechanism 6'used in this embodiment does not move in the transport direction of the transport conveyor 3, a support wheel or a guide wheel for traveling on the guide rail as shown in FIG. 3 is provided. Not not.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, depending on which of the left and right dispensing sections 4 the articles 9 are to be dispensed, the left side of the conveyor 3 on the upstream side with respect to the central position in the width direction of the conveyor 3. Alternatively, the article 9 is manually carried in on the right side. When the articles 9 carried on the conveyor 3 are conveyed to the position of the sorting mechanism 6 ′ arranged on the downstream side by the conveyor 3, the articles 9 are delivered to the delivery section 4 side. It is discharged to the chute 5 by the belt 61 and the delivery belt 71. FIG.
Although the sorting apparatus shown in FIG. 3 directly carries articles 9 into the transport conveyor 3, the articles 9 can also be carried into the transport conveyor 3 by the left-right sorting conveyor 2 shown in FIG.

In each of the embodiments described above, each payout unit 4
Although the chute 5 is used to carry out the articles 9 from the above, the sorted articles 9 may be conveyed to a desired place by using other conveying means such as a roller conveyor or a belt conveyor. .

[0028]

As described above, according to the sorting mechanism of the present invention, the articles are brought into contact with one of the pair of left and right payout belts rotating on a plane substantially perpendicular to the transport surface of the transport conveyor. Since the above-mentioned payout belts are used to perform the sorting by paying out to the side of the transport conveyor, even if the dispensing direction of the articles successively transported on the transport conveyor is distributed to the left and right, It is possible to reduce the transportation interval of the carried-in articles, and it is possible to perform high-speed and smooth sorting operation in a small space. Further, since the articles are delivered from the conveyor having the flat conveying surface, the articles having the uneven bottom surface or the small articles can be sorted without any trouble.

Further, according to the sorting apparatus of the present invention which uses the sorting mechanism, the articles can be efficiently sorted by the single sorting mechanism into the plurality of dispensing portions provided on the left and right sides of the conveyor. . Further, in the sorting device, when the left and right sorting conveyors are arranged upstream of the transporting conveyor, and when the articles are carried into the transporting conveyor by the left and right sorting conveyor, the dispensing belt on the dispensing portion side designated by the sorting mechanism is used. It is possible to accurately convey the articles to the position, it is possible to reliably prevent a sorting error, and it is possible to automate the sorting operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a sorting apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a sorting mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of a sorting mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the sorting apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the sorting mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional sorting device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a conventional sorting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Input Belt Conveyor 1 2 Left / Right Sorting Conveyor 3 Transport Conveyor 4 Discharging Section 5 Chute 6,6 ′ Sorting Mechanism 61 Dispensing Belt 9 Articles

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shiro Inoue 4-1796 Tsurumi, Tsurumi-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Within Tsubakimoto Chain Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor ▲ Yoshi ▼ Shigeru Tsurumi-ku, Tsurumi-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Chome 17-96 Tsubakimoto Chain Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shuichi Shinbo 4 Tsurumi Tsurumi-ku, Osaka-shi Osaka Prefecture 17-96 Tsubakimoto Chain Co., Ltd. (72) Kozo Kitabata Tsurumi 4 Tsurumi-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka No. 17-96 Tsubakimoto Chain Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pair of left and right conveyors that rotate in opposite directions to each other on surfaces substantially perpendicular to the conveyor surface and that deliver articles on the conveyor to either one of the dispensing parts arranged on the left and right sides of the conveyor. A sorting mechanism having a payout belt. 2. A transport conveyor having a flat transport surface provided with a plurality of dispensing portions on both left and right sides in the transport direction, and a sorting mechanism provided so as to be capable of reciprocating along the transport conveyor. The mechanism has a pair of left and right dispensing belts that rotate in mutually opposite directions on surfaces substantially perpendicular to the transportation surface of the transportation conveyor and that dispenses articles on the transportation conveyor to a designated dispensing portion. apparatus. 3. The sorting device according to claim 2, further comprising a left-right sorting conveyor arranged upstream of the transport conveyor to load the articles into the left and right with respect to a center in a width direction of the transport conveyor.