Feeders and limited feeding methods

Abstract

The present invention relates to a feeder and a limited feeding method. The feeder comprises a silo, a bottom belt, a lifting belt and a limiting device, wherein the bottom belt is arranged in the silo, the lifting belt is arranged at the output end of the bottom belt, the limiting device is arranged at the input end of the lifting belt and close to the output end of the bottom belt, and the limiting device comprises a baffle and a discharge mechanism rotatably connected to the baffle. On the one hand, when the bottom belt transmits materials to the lifting belt, materials located at the lower layer of the bottom belt can be normally transmitted to the lifting belt, and materials on the upper layer of the bottom belt are blocked by the baffle; on the other hand, materials blocked by the baffle are received by the discharge mechanism, and when the lifting belt is sufficiently supplied or the discharge mechanism has materials, the bottom belt stops supplying materials to the lifting belt, and when the materials on the lifting belt are insufficiently supplied, the discharge mechanism can supplement the received materials to the lifting belt, thereby realizing the limited supply of materials, and when the materials are tobacco shreds, the rolling and friction of tobacco shreds in the lifting belt can be reduced, thereby reducing tobacco shreds from being crushed, and reducing unnecessary tobacco shreds consumption.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of tobacco production, in particular to a feeder and a limited feeding method. Background Art

[0002] In the tobacco production line, the feeder is a material buffer device. It is a device that uses volume to feed materials quantitatively. It is mainly used to buffer materials between processes to maintain the continuity of the production process and the quantitative supply of material flow, to ensure the stability of the tobacco material supply flow, thereby achieving the function of material buffering and balanced material transportation for the front and rear processes of the production line. It is one of the important quantitative feeding equipment.

[0003] The existing feeder is mainly composed of a silo and a lifting belt. The silo supplies tobacco to the lifting belt in an intermittent feeding manner, and the tobacco is pulled flat by the pulling roller installed on the feeder to ensure that the material amount on the feeder is uniform. During the feeding process of the existing feeder, the supply amount of tobacco is relatively large, and there is a lot of tobacco on the lifting belt, which causes the tobacco to roll and rub continuously in the lifting belt, causing the tobacco to break and produce unnecessary consumption. Therefore, how to reduce the amount of tobacco fed by the feeder, thereby reducing the rolling and friction of the tobacco in the lifting belt, and then reducing the tobacco breakage and unnecessary tobacco consumption, has become a problem that needs to be solved in the tobacco production line. Summary of the invention

[0004] Based on this, it is necessary to provide a feeder and a limited feeding method capable of limited feeding to address the problem that the existing feeder feeds a large amount of tobacco during the feeding process, resulting in a large amount of tobacco breakage and unnecessary consumption.

[0005] According to one aspect of the present application, a feeder is provided, comprising:

[0006] Silos, used to hold materials;

[0007] A bottom belt is arranged in the silo, and the bottom belt is used to transport the material in a horizontal direction;

[0008] A lifting belt, provided at the output end of the bottom belt, the lifting belt is used to output the material from the silo;

[0009] A material limiting device is arranged above the input end of the lifting belt and close to the output end of the bottom belt. The material limiting device has a baffle and a discharge mechanism rotatably connected to the baffle. The baffle is used to block the material on the upper layer of the bottom belt from being transferred to the lifting belt. The discharge mechanism is used to receive the material blocked by the baffle when the bottom belt is transmitting the material, and is used to rotate relative to the baffle when the lifting belt is short of material supply to replenish the material to the lifting belt.

[0010] In one embodiment, the feeder further includes a control unit, the control unit includes a first sensor and a controller, the lifting belt has a steep angle, the first sensor is arranged on the steep angle and is communicatively connected to the controller, the controller is communicatively connected to the bottom belt and the material limiting device respectively, and the first sensor is used to detect whether there is material at the steep angle of the lifting belt;

[0011] When the first sensor detects that the steep-angle position contains the material, the controller controls the bottom belt to stop conveying the material; when the unloading mechanism contains the material and the first sensor detects that the steep-angle position of the lifting belt contains no material, the controller controls the unloading mechanism to replenish the material to the lifting belt.

[0012] In one embodiment, the control unit further includes a second sensor, which is disposed above the discharge mechanism and is communicatively connected to the controller, and the second sensor is used to detect whether the discharge mechanism has the material;

[0013] When the second sensor detects that the material is on the unloading mechanism, the controller controls the bottom belt to stop conveying the material.

[0014] In one of the embodiments, the material limiting device also includes a bracket and a driving element, the bracket is fixedly mounted on the top wall of the silo, the baffle is fixedly mounted on the bracket in the vertical direction, the driving element includes a fixed end and a movable end, the fixed end is fixedly mounted on the bracket, the movable end is rotatably connected to the unloading mechanism, and the movable end can reciprocate relative to the fixed end to drive the unloading mechanism to rotate relative to the baffle.

[0015] In one embodiment, the unloading mechanism includes a connecting member and a material receiving member, wherein the connecting member is rotatably connected to an end of the baffle away from the top wall of the silo, and the material receiving member is vertically fixedly connected to the connecting member;

[0016] The material receiving member can be arranged in a horizontal direction to receive the material, or the material receiving member can be rotated relative to the baffle plate to be arranged in a vertical direction so as to discharge the material onto the lifting belt.

[0017] In one embodiment, the material receiving member is a plurality of rake nails arranged at intervals along an arrangement direction; some of the rake nails have a first length, and another part of the rake nails have a second length, the first length is greater than the second length, and the rake nails with the first length and the rake nails with the second length are adjacent to and alternately arranged;

[0018] Wherein, the arrangement direction is perpendicular to both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction.

[0019] In one of the embodiments, when the material receiving piece is arranged in the horizontal direction, the vertical distance between the lower side of the material receiving piece and the extension surface of the bottom belt in the horizontal direction is 250 mm, and the horizontal distance between the end of the material receiving piece close to the bottom belt in the horizontal direction and the bottom belt is 200 mm.

[0020] According to another aspect of the present application, a limited feeding method is provided, comprising the following steps:

[0021] S1. Use the bottom belt to transfer materials to the lifting belt;

[0022] S2, using the baffle of the material limiting device to block the material on the upper layer of the bottom belt, and using the unloading mechanism of the material limiting device to receive the material blocked by the baffle;

[0023] S3, when the lifting belt is sufficiently supplied with materials and the unloading mechanism has the materials, the bottom belt is controlled to stop transmitting the materials to the lifting belt;

[0024] S4, the material is output from the material bin until the lifting belt is insufficiently supplied, and the material is replenished to the lifting belt by using the unloading mechanism.

[0025] In one embodiment, in step S3, it includes:

[0026] S31, using a first sensor to detect whether the steep angle of the lifting belt has the material, and using a second sensor to detect whether the unloading mechanism has the material;

[0027] S32, if the first sensor detects that the steep angle position has the material, and the second sensor detects that the unloading mechanism has the material, the controller sends a first control signal;

[0028] S33. Control the bottom belt to stop transmitting the material to the lifting belt according to the first control signal.

[0029] In one embodiment, in step S4, it includes:

[0030] S41, using a first sensor to detect whether the steep angle of the lifting belt has the material;

[0031] S42: If the first sensor detects that the steep angle of the lifting belt does not have the material, the controller sends a second control signal;

[0032] S43, controlling the unloading mechanism to rotate relative to the baffle according to the second control signal to unload the material onto the lifting belt;

[0033] S44. When the first sensor detects that the steep angle position of the lifting belt has the material again, the unloading mechanism is reset to the initial position.

[0034] The feeder and the limited feeding method are provided with a limiting device in the feeder, and the limiting device is provided above the input end of the lifting belt and close to the output end of the bottom belt, and the limiting device has a baffle and a discharge mechanism rotatably connected to the baffle. On the one hand, when the bottom belt transfers materials to the lifting belt, the materials located at the lower layer of the bottom belt can be normally transferred to the lifting belt, and the materials located at the upper layer of the bottom belt are blocked by the baffle; on the other hand, the materials blocked by the baffle are received by the discharge mechanism, and when the lifting belt is sufficiently supplied or the discharge mechanism has materials, the bottom belt is stopped from transferring materials to the lifting belt, so that the materials on the bottom belt will not be transferred to the lifting belt all at once, and the intermittent supply of materials is realized. When the material supply on the lifting belt is insufficient, the discharge mechanism can also supplement the materials it receives to the lifting belt, thereby realizing the limited supply of materials, which can effectively reduce the amount of tobacco fed by the feeder, reduce the rolling and friction of tobacco in the lifting belt, and thus reduce the crushing of tobacco, and reduce unnecessary tobacco consumption. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only one embodiment of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, drawings of other embodiments can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0036] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a material machine provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0037] Figure 2 A three-dimensional schematic diagram of a material limiting device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0038] Figure 3 A side view of a material limiting device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0039] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a control unit provided for an embodiment of the present invention;

[0040] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the steps of a limited feeding method provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0041] Description of reference numerals:

[0042] 10. Feeder; 100. Silo; 200. Feeding belt; 300. Bottom belt; 400. Lifting belt; 410. Horizontal transmission section; 420. Inclined transmission section; 430. Steep angle; 500. Material limiting device; 510. Bracket; 520. Baffle; 530. Discharge mechanism; 531. Connecting piece; 532. Material receiving piece; 540. Driving element; 541. Fixed end; 542. Movable end; 600. Control unit; 610. First sensor; 620. Second sensor; 630. Controller. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] In order to make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the specific embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention. However, the present invention can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar improvements without violating the connotation of the present invention, so the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0044] In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms “center”, “longitudinal”, “lateral”, “length”, “width”, “thickness”, “up”, “down”, “front”, “back”, “left”, “right”, “vertical”, “liquid level”, “top”, “bottom”, “inside”, “outside”, “clockwise”, “counterclockwise”, “axial”, “radial”, “circumferential”, etc., indicating orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as limiting the present invention.

[0045] In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of the present invention, the meaning of "plurality" is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0046] In the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", "connected", "fixed" and the like should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, it can be the internal connection of two elements or the interaction relationship between two elements, unless otherwise clearly defined. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0047] In the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, a first feature being "above" or "below" a second feature may mean that the first and second features are in direct contact, or the first and second features are in indirect contact through an intermediate medium. Moreover, a first feature being "above", "above" or "above" a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or simply means that the first feature has a higher liquid level than the second feature. A first feature being "below", "below" or "below" a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly below or obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature has a lower liquid level than the second feature.

[0048] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" or "disposed on" another element, it may be directly on the other element or there may be a central element. When an element is considered to be "connected to" another element, it may be directly connected to the other element or there may be a central element at the same time. The terms "vertical", "liquid horizontal", "upper", "lower", "left", "right" and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the only implementation method.

[0049] An embodiment of the present invention provides a feeder and a limited feeding method, wherein the feeder is used to supply materials as raw materials of products on a product production line and to buffer materials between processes to maintain the continuity of the production process and the quantitative supply of material flow, thereby ensuring the stability of the material flow. The limited feeding method is used to perform intermittent feeding and limited feeding during the material feeding process to achieve quantitative supply of material flow, thereby reducing the tumbling and friction of the material in the feeder.

[0050] The following uses the feeding of tobacco shreds as an example to explain the structure of the feeder and the steps of the limited feeding method in the present application. This embodiment is only used as an example and does not limit the technical scope of the present application. It can be understood that in other embodiments, the feeder of the present application is not limited to feeding tobacco shreds, but can also be used to store any other type of material for feeding, which is not limited here.

[0051] The following combination Figures 1 to 5 , introduces the preferred implementation of the feeder and limited feeding method provided by this application.

[0052] like Figure 1As shown, a feeder 10 includes a silo 100, a feeding belt 200, a bottom belt 300, a lifting belt 400 and a material limiting device 500. The silo 100 is used to contain materials; the feeding belt 200 is arranged above the outside of the silo 100, and is used to feed materials into the silo 100; the bottom belt 300 is arranged in the silo 100, and is used to transport materials in the horizontal direction; the lifting belt 400 is also arranged in the silo 100, and is arranged at the output end of the bottom belt 300, and is used to output materials from the silo 100; the material limiting device 500 is arranged above the input end of the lifting belt 400, and is close to the output end of the bottom belt 300, and is used to block the materials on the upper layer of the bottom belt 300 when the bottom belt 300 is transporting materials, so as to achieve the purpose of limiting the material supply, and the material limiting device 500 is also used to replenish the lifting belt 400 with materials when the material supply on the lifting belt 400 is insufficient.

[0053] Specifically, the output end of the bottom belt 300 is arranged adjacent to the input end of the lifting belt 400, and the input end of the lifting belt 400 is arranged above the output end of the bottom belt 300. The lifting belt 400 includes a horizontal transmission section 410 and an inclined transmission section 420 connected to each other, and the lifting belt 400 has a steep angle 430. The horizontal transmission section 410 is arranged at a position close to the output end of the bottom belt 300, and the inclined transmission section 420 extends obliquely upward to the outlet of the silo 100 so as to be able to output the material (i.e., tobacco) from the silo 100. The inclined transmission section 420 and the horizontal transmission section 410 form an obtuse angle α greater than 90°, and the steep angle 430 is located at the obtuse angle α. The bottom belt 300 and the lifting belt 400 can be a belt transmission structure or a chain sprocket transmission structure, which is not specifically limited.

[0054] In some embodiments, Figure 2 and Figure 3 As shown, the material limiting device 500 includes a bracket 510, a baffle 520, a discharge mechanism 530 and a driving element 540. The bracket 510 is fixedly mounted on the top wall of the silo 100, the baffle 520 is fixedly mounted on the bracket 510 in the vertical direction, the discharge mechanism 530 is rotatably connected to the baffle 520, and one end of the driving element 540 is connected to the bracket 510, and the other end is connected to the discharge mechanism 530. Specifically, the driving element 540 includes a fixed end 541 and a movable end 542, the fixed end 541 is fixedly mounted on the bracket 510, the movable end 542 is rotatably connected to the discharge mechanism 530, and the movable end 542 can reciprocate and telescopically move relative to the fixed end 541 to drive the discharge mechanism 530 to operate. Among them, the driving element 540 can be a cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder. The unloading mechanism 530 includes a connecting member 531 and a material receiving member 532. The connecting member 531 is rotatably connected to one end of the baffle 520 away from the top wall of the silo 100, and the connecting member 531 is rotatably connected to the movable end 542 of the driving element 540. The material receiving member 532 is vertically fixedly connected to the connecting member 531.

[0055] In some embodiments, the material receiving member 532 is a plurality of rake nails arranged at intervals along an arrangement direction, wherein the arrangement direction is perpendicular to both the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. The purpose of selecting rake nails for the material receiving member 532 is that when the material is tobacco, the rake nails are easy to insert into the tobacco so that the tobacco can be hung on the rake nails, and can also play a role in loosening the tobacco to avoid the tobacco from clumping. Preferably, some rake nails have a first length, and another part of the rake nails have a second length, the first length is greater than the second length, and the rake nails with the first length and the rake nails with the second length are adjacent and alternately arranged. The purpose of such a design is to reduce the resistance of tobacco during transportation so that the rake nails can be more conducive to inserting into the tobacco and catching the tobacco.

[0056] It should be noted that, when the material is of other types, the material receiving member 532 may also be a plate-like structure, which is not specifically limited.

[0057] When the unloading mechanism 530 is in the initial state, the material receiving piece 532 is arranged in the horizontal direction, and the vertical distance between the lower side of the material receiving piece 532 and the extension surface of the bottom belt 300 in the horizontal direction is preferably 250 mm, and the horizontal distance between the end of the material receiving piece 532 close to the bottom belt 300 in the horizontal direction and the bottom belt 300 is preferably 200 mm.

[0058] Thus, when the bottom belt 300 is transmitting materials in the horizontal direction, the materials at the lower layer of the bottom belt 300 can be transmitted to the lifting belt 400, and thus are output from the silo 100 by the lifting belt 400. Meanwhile, the materials at the upper layer of the bottom belt 300 can be blocked by the baffle 520, and the material receiving member 532 can receive the materials blocked by the baffle 520. When the movable end 542 of the driving element 540 performs reciprocating telescopic motion relative to the fixed end 541, the driving element 540 can drive the unloading mechanism 530 to rotate relative to the baffle 520, so that the material receiving member 532 rotates relative to the baffle 520 to be arranged in the vertical direction so that the materials previously received by the material receiving member 532 can be unloaded onto the lifting belt 400, thereby achieving the purpose of replenishing materials to the lifting belt 400 when the material supply on the lifting belt 400 is insufficient.

[0059] More preferably, if Figure 1 , Figure 2 and Figure 4As shown, the feeder 10 further includes a control unit 600, which includes a first sensor 610, a second sensor 620 and a controller 630. The first sensor 610 is disposed on the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400 and is communicatively connected to the controller 630. The first sensor 610 is used to detect whether there is material on the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400. The second sensor 620 is disposed above the discharge mechanism 530 and is communicatively connected to the controller 630. The second sensor 620 is used to detect whether there is material on the discharge mechanism 530. The controller 630 is communicatively connected to the bottom belt 300 and the material limiting device 500 at the same time. Specifically, the controller 630 can be a PLC controller 630, which is used to control the start or stop of the bottom belt 300 to transport materials according to the detection results of the first sensor 610 and the second sensor 620, and to control the driving element 540 through a solenoid valve, such as a three-position five-way solenoid valve, to drive the discharge mechanism 530 to discharge materials to the lifting belt 400.

[0060] Specifically, when the first sensor 610 detects that the steep angle position 430 has materials, the controller 630 controls the bottom belt 300 to stop conveying materials; when there are materials on the unloading mechanism 530 and the first sensor 610 detects that there are no materials on the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400, the controller 630 controls the unloading mechanism 530 to operate to replenish materials to the lifting belt 400. When the second sensor 620 detects that there are materials on the unloading mechanism 530, the controller 630 controls the bottom belt 300 to stop conveying materials.

[0061] like Figures 1 to 5 As shown, using the above feeder 10, the steps of the limited feeding method are as follows:

[0062] S1. Use the bottom belt 300 to transfer materials to the lifting belt 400. Specifically, when the first sensor 610 detects that there is no material at the steep angle 430 of the lifting belt 400, and the second sensor 620 detects that there is no material on the unloading mechanism 530, the controller 630 does not send a control signal, and the bottom belt 300 transfers materials to the lifting belt 400.

[0063] S2. Use the baffle 520 of the material limiting device 500 to block the material on the upper layer of the bottom belt 300, and use the unloading mechanism 530 of the material limiting device 500 to receive the material blocked by the baffle 520; as described above, since the baffle 520 is arranged in the vertical direction, and the material receiving piece 532 of the unloading mechanism 530 is arranged in the horizontal direction, while the bottom belt 300 transports the material forward in the horizontal direction, a small amount of material located in the lower layer of the bottom belt 300 can fall onto the bottom belt 300 from the gap between the material limiting device 500 and the bottom belt 300, while the material located in the upper layer of the bottom belt 300 is blocked by the baffle 520, and the unloading mechanism 530 can receive the material blocked by the baffle 520.

[0064] S3: When the lifting belt 400 is fully supplied with materials and the unloading mechanism 530 has materials, the bottom belt 300 is controlled to stop transmitting materials to the lifting belt 400. Specifically, this step includes:

[0065] S31, using the first sensor 610 to detect whether there is material at the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400, and using the second sensor 620 to detect whether there is material on the unloading mechanism 530;

[0066] S32, if the first sensor 610 detects that there is material at the steep angle position 430, and the second sensor 620 detects that there is material on the discharge mechanism 530, the controller 630 sends a first control signal. Specifically, when the first sensor 610 detects that there is material at the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400, it indicates that the lifting belt 400 has sufficient material supply, and when the second sensor 620 detects that there is material on the discharge mechanism 530, it indicates that there is sufficient material on the discharge mechanism 530, and at this time, the feeding needs to be controlled, and the controller 630 sends the first control signal;

[0067] S33, according to the first control signal, the bottom belt 300 is controlled to stop conveying materials to the lifting belt 400. Specifically, the controller 630 sends a first control signal to the motor driving the bottom belt 300, and the motor stops working, that is, the bottom belt 300 stops conveying materials, so that only the lifting belt 400 continues to convey materials toward the exit of the silo 100, and no new materials are added to the lifting belt 400.

[0068] S4, the material is output from the silo 100 until the lifting belt 400 is insufficiently supplied with material, and the material is replenished to the lifting belt 400 by the unloading mechanism 530. Specifically, this step includes:

[0069] S41, using the first sensor 610 to detect whether the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400 has material;

[0070] S42, if the first sensor 610 detects that there is no material at the steep angle 430 of the lifting belt 400, the controller 630 sends a second control signal. Specifically, if the first detector detects again that there is no material at the steep angle 430 of the lifting belt 400, it indicates that the material supply on the lifting belt 400 is insufficient. At this time, in order to keep the feeder 10 able to continuously output materials, it is necessary to add materials to the lifting belt 400;

[0071] S43, according to the second control signal, the unloading mechanism 530 is controlled to rotate relative to the baffle 520 to unload the material onto the lifting belt 400. Specifically, the unloading mechanism 530 has received the material blocked by the baffle 520 in step S1, and the second sensor 620 detects that there is material on the unloading mechanism 530 in step S3. At this time, in order to replenish the material to the lifting belt 400, the controller 630 sends a second control signal to the driving element 540 of the unloading mechanism 530, and the driving element 540 controls the unloading mechanism 530 to rotate relative to the baffle 520 according to the second control signal, so that the material receiving member 532 of the unloading mechanism 530 is arranged in the vertical direction, thereby unloading the material previously received by the material receiving member 532 onto the lifting belt 400, so that the lifting belt 400 always keeps the material on it and outputs it to the outlet of the silo 100.

[0072] S44, when the first sensor 610 detects that the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400 has material again, the unloading mechanism 530 is reset to the initial position. At this time, the lifting belt 400 reaches a state of sufficient material supply again, and the unloading mechanism 530 is reset to the initial position, so that the material receiving member 532 of the unloading mechanism 530 is ready to receive the subsequent material again. At this time, there is no material on the unloading mechanism 530, and the second sensor 620 also immediately detects that there is no material on the unloading mechanism 530, and the material on the lifting belt 400 continues to be transmitted until the first sensor 610 detects that there is no material on the steep angle position 430 of the lifting belt 400 again, that is, when the material supply of the lifting belt 400 is insufficient again, the steps S1 to S4 are repeated again to achieve intermittent operation of the bottom belt, thereby achieving the purpose of limited feeding.

[0073] Thus, by setting the limiting device 500 in the feeder 10, and setting the control unit 600 on the basis of setting the limiting device 500, the control unit 600 can automatically control the actions of the bottom belt 300 and the unloading mechanism 530 according to the material supply situation on the lifting belt 400, making the above-mentioned limited feeding method more intelligent, without manual intervention throughout the process, and realizing the fully automatic operation of limited feeding. Thereby, the amount of tobacco fed by the feeder 10 can be effectively reduced, the rolling and friction of tobacco in the lifting belt 400 can be reduced, and then the tobacco crushing can be reduced, and unnecessary tobacco consumption can be reduced.

[0074] It should be noted that the control unit 600 may not be configured in the feeder 10, and the feeder 10 may rely entirely on manual observation of whether there is material on the steep angle 430 of the lifting belt 400 and the discharge mechanism 530, and manually control the operation of the bottom belt 300 and the discharge mechanism 530, or only the first sensor 610 may be provided in the control unit 600 without the second sensor 620, and the feeder 10 may rely on manual observation of whether there is material on the discharge mechanism 530, and manually control the operation of the discharge mechanism 530, and the specific details are not limited. However, it is obvious that configuring the control unit 600 and simultaneously providing the first sensor 610 and the second sensor 620 in the control unit 600 can enable the above-mentioned limited feeding method to achieve the best degree of automation.

[0075] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0076] The above-mentioned embodiment only expresses one implementation mode of the present invention, and its description is relatively specific and detailed, but it cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this field, several modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, which all belong to the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be based on the attached claims.

Claims

1. A feeding machine, characterized in that: include: Silos, used to hold materials; A bottom belt is arranged in the silo, and the bottom belt is used to transport the material in a horizontal direction; A lifting belt, provided at the output end of the bottom belt and having a steep angle, the lifting belt is used to output the material from the silo; A material limiting device is arranged above the input end of the lifting belt and close to the output end of the bottom belt, the material limiting device comprises a baffle and a discharge mechanism rotatably connected to the baffle, the baffle is used to block the material located on the upper layer of the bottom belt from being transferred to the lifting belt, the discharge mechanism is used to receive the material blocked by the baffle when the bottom belt transfers the material, and is used to rotate relative to the baffle when the lifting belt is short of material supply, so as to replenish the material to the lifting belt; A control unit, comprising a first sensor, a second sensor and a controller, wherein the first sensor is arranged above the steep angle position and is communicatively connected to the controller, the controller is communicatively connected to the bottom belt and the material limiting device respectively, the first sensor is used to detect whether there is material at the steep angle position of the lifting belt; the second sensor is arranged above the discharge mechanism and is communicatively connected to the controller, the second sensor is used to detect whether there is the material at the discharge mechanism; When the first sensor detects that the steep-angle position contains the material, and when the second sensor detects that the material is on the unloading mechanism, the controller controls the bottom belt to stop conveying the material; when the material is on the unloading mechanism and the first sensor detects that the steep-angle position of the lifting belt does not contain the material, the controller controls the unloading mechanism to replenish the material to the lifting belt.

2. The feeder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The material limiting device also includes a bracket and a driving element, the bracket is fixedly installed on the top wall of the silo, the baffle is fixedly installed on the bracket in the vertical direction, the driving element includes a fixed end and a movable end, the fixed end is fixedly installed on the bracket, the movable end is rotatably connected to the unloading mechanism, and the movable end can reciprocate relative to the fixed end to drive the unloading mechanism to rotate relative to the baffle.

3. The feeder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The unloading mechanism comprises a connecting piece and a material receiving piece, wherein the connecting piece is rotatably connected to one end of the baffle away from the top wall of the silo, and the material receiving piece is vertically fixedly connected to the connecting piece; The material receiving member can be arranged in a horizontal direction to receive the material, or the material receiving member can be rotated relative to the baffle plate to be arranged in a vertical direction so as to discharge the material onto the lifting belt.

4. The feeder according to claim 3, characterized in that The material receiving member is a plurality of rake nails arranged at intervals along an arrangement direction; wherein the arrangement direction is perpendicular to both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction.

5. The feeder according to claim 4, characterized in that Some of the rake nails have a first length, and another part of the rake nails have a second length, the first length is greater than the second length, and the rake nails with the first length and the rake nails with the second length are adjacent to and alternately arranged.

6. The feeder according to claim 3, characterized in that: The material receiving piece is a plate-shaped structure.

7. The feeder according to claim 3, characterized in that: When the material receiving piece is arranged in the horizontal direction, the vertical distance between the lower side of the material receiving piece and the horizontal extension surface of the bottom belt is 250 mm, and the horizontal distance between the end of the material receiving piece close to the bottom belt in the horizontal direction and the bottom belt is 200 mm.

8. The feeder according to claim 1, characterized in that The lifting belt includes a horizontal transmission section and an inclined transmission section which are connected to each other. The horizontal transmission section is arranged at a position close to the output end of the bottom belt, and the inclined transmission section extends obliquely upward to the outlet of the silo so as to be able to output the material from the silo.

9. The feeder according to claim 8, characterized in that The inclined transmission section and the horizontal transmission section form an obtuse angle α greater than 90°, and the steep angle is located at the obtuse angle α.

10. A limited feeding method, characterized in that: The steps include: S1. Use the bottom belt to transfer materials to the lifting belt; S2, using the baffle of the material limiting device to block the material on the upper layer of the bottom belt, and using the unloading mechanism of the material limiting device to receive the material blocked by the baffle; S3, when the lifting belt is sufficiently supplied with materials and the unloading mechanism has the materials, the bottom belt is controlled to stop transmitting the materials to the lifting belt; In step S3, it includes: S31, using a first sensor to detect whether the steep angle of the lifting belt has the material, and using a second sensor to detect whether the unloading mechanism has the material; S32, if the first sensor detects that the steep angle position has the material, and the second sensor detects that the unloading mechanism has the material, the controller sends a first control signal; S33, controlling the bottom belt to stop transmitting the material to the lifting belt according to the first control signal; S4, the material output silo until the lifting belt is insufficiently supplied, and the material is replenished to the lifting belt by the unloading mechanism; in step S4, it includes: S41, using a first sensor to detect whether the steep angle of the lifting belt has the material; S42: If the first sensor detects that the steep angle of the lifting belt does not have the material, the controller sends a second control signal; S43, controlling the unloading mechanism to rotate relative to the baffle according to the second control signal to unload the material onto the lifting belt; S44. When the first sensor detects that the steep angle position of the lifting belt has the material again, the unloading mechanism is reset to the initial position.

Images