JPH072495Y2 - Conveyor for long item sorter - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial field of application) The present invention selects long agricultural products such as green asparagus and long industrial products into grades according to length and thickness. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a transport device for suspending and transporting a long article sorter using a suspending tool.

(Prior Art) In recent years, long-range agricultural products such as green asparagus are sorted by grade according to length and thickness, packed and sold at retail stores and the like. Therefore, the grading based on the length and the thickness was conducted by visual inspection by humans, but the processing speed and the inspection accuracy were limited. In order to solve this, a long-sized article sorter in which grading by length and thickness is mechanized has already been used. As this type of apparatus, for example, JP-A-63-54981 is known. As shown in FIGS. 7 (a) and 7 (b), this device has a conveying device 10 provided with a laterally traveling bucket conveyor 17 so that it can be driven freely.
Item supply unit 30 that sequentially supplies items to be sorted to 18
And a measuring unit 40 such as a camera (not shown) that sequentially measures required sorting elements of each article to be sorted, and a controller 50 that receives an input from the measuring unit 40. A plurality of distributors 21 are provided at 17 with appropriate intervals in the longitudinal direction. Incidentally, the bucket 18 of the bucket conveyor 17 places the article to be sorted, and when the article has been transported to the position of the specific distributor 21 corresponding to the measurement value of the measurement section 40 of the article to be sorted, based on the measurement value. It can be pushed by a pusher 22 of a distributor 21 that operates according to a command signal output from a controller 50, and a plurality of containers 23 are arranged immediately below the upper end of a bucket conveyor 17. The bucket 18 is a sorter 21.
Is released by the pusher 22 of the
The articles to be sorted on 18 are dropped and stored in the container 23.

As described above, according to the long article sorter, the processing speed and the inspection accuracy for sorting the long agricultural products and the long industrial products by length and thickness are improved.

However, when measuring the required sorting elements of the article to be sorted with a camera, dirt on the article to be sorted adheres to the bucket 18, or if the article to be sorted is metallic, scratches due to abrasion with the bucket 18 etc. However, there is a problem in that these portions are measured as a part of the article to be sorted, and these portions are measured as a part of the article to be sorted, which is longer or thicker than the actual length and thickness of the article to be sorted.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the long article sorter that mechanically sorts when performing grade sorting based on the length and thickness, which are required sorting elements of the articles to be sorted, When measuring the required sorting elements of, such as with a camera, dirt on the articles to be sorted adheres to the bucket, or if the articles to be sorted are metal, scratches on the bucket can cause scratches on the bucket,
These parts are also measured as a part of the article to be sorted, and there is a problem in that the length and thickness of the article to be sorted are longer and thicker than the actual length and thickness.

Therefore, the present invention, when measuring the required sorting element of the article to be sorted with a camera or the like, when the article to be sorted has dirt or the like adhered to the bucket or the article to be sorted is metallic, the bucket and the bucket are not worn. An object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor for a long article sorter capable of accurately measuring the actual length and thickness of articles to be sorted, even when the bucket is scratched by the like.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problem) The present invention is composed of a pair of endless chains, a drive pulley, etc., and connects a plurality of the endless chains at equal intervals over the entire circumference of the endless chains. A fixed shaft is provided. Further, a cylindrical rotating body is rotatably provided on the fixed shaft, and a pair of hook-shaped suspending tools for suspending articles to be sorted in the longitudinal direction are fixed to the cylindrical rotating body. An operating rod is provided at a position so as to be pushed by the pusher of the sorter to drop the articles to be sorted from the suspending tool. Provided is a conveying device for a long article sorter configured as described above.

Further, in the conveying device for a long article sorter configured as described above, a roller is provided at a lower portion of the back surface of the suspending tool, and a long length is provided with a guide rail for preventing the swinging of the suspending tool by the contact of the roller. Provided is a conveying device for a lengthy article sorter.

(Operation) The present invention is a conveyance device of a long article sorter for sorting long agricultural products such as green asparagus and long industrial products into grades according to length and thickness. The items to be sorted are supplied one by one to the hook-shaped suspending tool from the article supply unit, and the sorted products hung by the suspending device are conveyed in the vertical direction, and the required sorting elements for the sorted products in the measuring unit. Is measured with a camera or the like. At this time, even if dirt on the article to be sorted is attached, or if the article to be sorted is scratched due to abrasion or the like, it is a hook-shaped hanging tool that affects the image input. It does not affect. The required sorting elements of the articles to be sorted input here are received by the controller. The articles to be sorted after the measurement are transferred to the lateral direction in a state of being suspended by the suspending tool. Since the suspending tool is fixed to the rotatably provided cylindrical rotating body, the suspending tool always faces downward even if the transport direction changes from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction. Then, the actuating rod that is conveyed to the sorting unit and is provided at the position above the cylindrical rotating body is pressed by the pusher of the sorting machine, and the articles to be sorted can be dropped and stored in the container.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be designated by the same reference numeral as that of the conventional example (FIG. 7), and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a long article sorter showing the configuration of the present invention. A pair of endless chains 61, a plurality of drive pulleys 62 on which the endless chains 61 are suspended, and the drive pulleys.
A drive source 60 such as a motor for driving the endless chain 61 via one of 62, and a plurality of fixed shafts 13 connecting the endless chains 61 at equal intervals are provided on the entire circumference of the endless chain 61. A hook-shaped suspending tool 11 for suspending the non-sorted articles W in the longitudinal direction is attached to the fixed shaft 13. And
As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the hanging tool 11 performs a pendulum motion, and the fixed shaft is passed through a cylindrical rotating body 12 fixed to an end opposite to the hook-shaped part of the hanging tool 11. It is rotatably attached to 13. The hook-shaped portions of the hanging tool 11 are oriented such that the articles W to be sorted are hooked and hung on the hook-shaped portions of the hanging tool 11 one by one in the article supply unit 30. The measuring unit 40 is a camera
It consists of 41 and lighting 42, etc., and the article W to be sorted is measured in a state of being suspended from the suspending tool 11. The controller 50 is a camera
The image of the article to be sorted obtained in 41 is subjected to image processing, and the grade is judged based on the already registered standard pattern. Distribution unit
A plurality of distributors 21 each having a pusher 22 are installed on the 20, and the pusher 22 is actuated according to the determination result of the controller 50 to push the actuating rod 14. Then, the articles W to be sorted fall and are distributed to the containers 23. The controller 50
When the image processing is performed in step 1, the image of the article to be sorted and the hanging tool image are input in the image input by the camera or the like. At this time, the suspending tool 11 is always obtained at a constant position in the image and with a constant size. No problems arise.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of an essential part of the present invention, FIG. 3 (a) is a front view thereof, and FIG. 3 (b) is a side view thereof. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the endless chain 61 is supported by the outer frame 63.
A fixed shaft 13 that connects the left and right endless chains 61 with an appropriate interval so that the hanging members 11 adjacent to each other are not in contact with each other.
Is provided. This fixed shaft 13 has a suspension 11 and an operating rod.
A cylindrical rotating body 12 provided with 14 is rotatably provided. This hanging tool 11 has two hooks that are symmetrical in the downward direction and the hooks are in the opposite direction to the conveying direction (arrow direction).
14 is fixed to the upper end position. In addition, a fixed shaft 13 is penetrated into the hollow portion of the cylindrical rotating body 12, and
The weight of 11 allows the suspending tool 11 to rotate so as to always face vertically downward. Upon receiving the determination result from the controller (not shown), the pusher 22 is actuated on the outer frame 63 to push the actuating rod 14 and push up the hook-shaped portion of the suspending tool 11 in the transport direction (arrow direction). And the article W to be sorted in the hook-shaped portion
A sorter 21 is installed to drop and sort.

4 (a), (b) and (c) are diagrams showing the sorting operation. As shown in FIG. 4 (a), the suspending tool 11 in which the hook-shaped portions are oriented in the opposite direction to the transport direction (arrow direction) is used to place the articles W to be sorted and to sort them (not shown). Will be transported to the lower surface of. Then, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the pusher 22 rotates clockwise in response to the determination result from the controller (not shown). This rotation causes the pusher 22 to move the operating rod 14
When is pressed and rotated counterclockwise, the hanging tool 11 also rotates counterclockwise. The articles W to be sorted placed by the rotation of the hanging tool 11 fall. The hanging tool 11 on which the articles W to be sorted have been dropped is configured so that the pressing of the pusher 22 is released as shown in FIG. 4 (c) and the hanging tool 11 returns to its original state by its own weight. .

FIG. 5 (a) is a front view of the measuring unit provided with the guide rail 16, and FIG. 5 (b) is a side view thereof. When the article W to be sorted is placed on the suspending tool 11 and conveyed in the vertical direction, an image of the article to be sorted is input from the camera 41 in a state of being suspended by the suspending tool 11. At this time, since the suspending tool 11 swings due to vibrations such as transportation, a rotatable roller 15 is provided on the lower lower portion of the back surface of the suspending tool 11, and the guide rail 16 that prevents the swinging by the roller 15 making a rolling contact. It is installed at a position facing the camera 41. Although not shown, if the guide rail is a single plate-shaped one, it serves as a reflector when the camera 41 inputs the image of the article to be sorted, and the rear image of the article W to be sorted is stabilized.

FIG. 6 is a view showing another shape of the operating rod 14. Sixth
In the figure (a), the cylindrical rotating body 12 has an elliptical shape, the suspending tool 11 is fixed in a state where the longitudinal direction of the elliptical shape is vertical and vertical, and the fixed shaft 13 is attached to the lower portion of the elliptic cylindrical rotating body 12. Has been penetrated.
Therefore, the upper portion of the elliptical cylindrical rotating body 12 is the operating rod 14
To work as. FIG. 6 (b) shows that the upper end portion of the suspending tool 11 is extended and the suspending tool is extended from the upper end position of the tubular rotating body 12.
The suspending tool 11 is fixed in a state where the upper end of 11 is in the upper position, and the upper part of the suspending tool 11 functions as the operating rod 14. The shape shown here is an example, and any shape may be used as long as it functions as the actuating rod 14.

In addition, although the present embodiment has been described with a long agricultural product as a selection target, it is obvious that the present invention can be applied to shape / dimension selection of a long product using a material such as metal or synthetic resin.

As described above, according to the present invention, by using a hook-shaped suspending tool to convey the articles to be sorted, when measuring the length and thickness, which are the required sorting elements of the articles to be sorted, with a camera or the like, Even if dirt on the article to be sorted is attached to the hanging tool, or if the hanging tool is scratched by abrasion when the article to be sorted is metallic, It is possible to accurately measure the length and the thickness.

In addition, in the conveying apparatus of the long article sorter of the present invention, the long articles are measured by the camera, but the measuring apparatus using the laser beam is not limited to the measuring apparatus using the camera.

[Advantage of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, in the conveying device of the long article sorter, the article to be sorted is conveyed by using the hook-shaped suspending tool, which is a required sorting element for the article to be sorted. When measuring length and thickness with a camera etc., dirt etc. of the article to be sorted adheres to the hanging tool, or scratches due to abrasion etc. when the article to be sorted is metallic are hung It is possible to accurately measure the actual length and thickness of the article to be sorted even when the article is prepared.

Further, when the image of the article to be sorted is input by the camera, the guide rail for preventing the swinging of the hanging tool on which the article to be sorted is hung allows the stable input of the image of the article to be sorted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a long article sorter of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part, and FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are front and side views of the main part, and FIG. (A), (b) and (c) are diagrams showing the sorting operation of the articles to be sorted, (a) and (b) of FIG. 5 are a front view and a side view of the measuring section, and (a) of FIG. 7B is a view showing another shape of the actuating rod, and FIGS. 7A and 7B are a plan view and a front view of a conventional long article sorter. 10 ... Conveying device, 11 ... Hanging tool, 12 ... Cylindrical rotating body, 13 ... Fixed shaft, 14 ... Actuating rod, 15 ... Roller, 16 ... Guide rail, 17
… Bucket conveyor, 18… Bucket, 20… Distributor, 21…
Sorting machine, 22 ... pusher, 23 ... container, 30 ... article supply section,
40 ... Measuring unit, 41 ... Camera, 42 ... Illumination, 50 ... Controller, 60 ... Drive source, 61 ... Endless chain, 62 ... Drive pulley,
63 ... Outer frame, W ... Article to be sorted.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A fixed shaft, which comprises a pair of endless chains, a drive pulley, etc., and is provided on the entire circumference of the endless chain so as to connect a plurality of the endless chains at equal intervals, and is rotatable with respect to the fixed shaft. And a pair of hook-shaped suspending tools that suspend the articles to be sorted in the longitudinal direction and are fixed to the cylindrical rotating body, and push the sorter to the position above the cylindrical rotating body. A conveyor for a long article sorter, comprising: an actuating rod that is pressed by a child to drop an article to be sorted from the hanging tool. 2. A utility model registration claim, comprising: a roller provided on a lower portion of a back surface of the suspending tool; and a guide rail for preventing the swinging of the suspending tool by contact with the roller. Conveying device for a long article sorter according to item 1.