Workpiece supply apparatus

Abstract

To provide a workpiece supply apparatus capable of surely picking up even a workpiece which is difficult to be conveyed without mutual interference between workpieces by a transfer device to convey, and realizing space-saving by shortening / miniaturizing the process where mutual interference between workpieces occurs.SOLUTION: In a workpiece supply apparatus, an imaging device 31 is disposed so as to image a workpiece 51 transferred on a horizontal conveyance part 21 for each placement block 15. A transfer device 25 is controlled so as to pick up one workpiece 51 for each placement block 15 on the horizontal conveyance part 21 on the downstream side of the imaging position based on the data imaged by the imaging device 31.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a work supplying device that supplies a work to a transfer device that transfers the work to a transport path in a predetermined attitude, and in particular to a work supplying device that is suitable for use with caps with suction tubes such as trigger caps and pump caps, or mayonnaise containers, which are transported and supplied in an unstable loading state in which the work is prone to overlapping or rolling. [Background technology]

[0002] A transfer device picks up workpieces transported along a supply path consisting of a conveyor based on arrangement information of the workpieces acquired by a camera or the like and places them in a predetermined attitude at another location. When supplying the workpieces to be picked up to a transfer device, a method has been adopted in which the workpieces on the supply path are converted from a dense and messy arrangement to a sparse arrangement with spaces between them, and a separation means is provided to provide gaps between the front, rear, left and right works. The method involves transferring the workpieces from a low-speed conveyor arranged in the running direction of the workpieces midway along the supply path to a high-speed conveyor, and switching the transport speed of the workpieces from low to high (see Patent Document 1).

[0003] Here, a trigger cap, which is widely used in recent bottle containers filled with household detergents and the like, is composed of a cap body that is wrapped around the mouth of the bottle container, a pump section that is attached horizontally and rotatably to the cap body, a nozzle that is attached toward the discharge side of the pump section, a cap section that has a trigger section that is connected to the pump and on which the fingers of a hand are hooked, and a suction tube that is attached so as to hang down from the cap section to the suction side of the pump section.

[0004] These trigger caps are also picked up one by one by a transfer device, their nozzle orientation (posture) is adjusted, and they are handed over to a transport device for the subsequent process, and are finally transported to the seaming process. They are one of the works. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2001-171727 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] The cap portion of the trigger cap is formed with a rigidity that makes it difficult for it to deform during transportation, but the suction tube is a flexible, non-rigid portion that is easily deformed during transportation, and is formed to hang down from the cap portion. Therefore, trigger caps supplied in a mixed state tend to have overlapping cap portions and entangled suction tubes (interference between works). Thus, if a means for separating each trigger cap by using a speed difference between conveyors is adopted for the transportation of trigger caps that are prone to interference between works, many long conveyors aligned in the traveling direction are required, resulting in a large overall transportation device.

[0007] In addition, if the number of conveyors increases, the speed of the conveyor installed at the most downstream (last) naturally becomes faster, which increases the accuracy of recognizing the trigger caps transported on this last conveyor by a camera or the like and the difficulty of the transfer device picking them up, which can cause transfer failures.

[0008] Furthermore, if the trigger caps overlap, when the transfer device picks up one trigger cap, it often touches another trigger cap and displaces it, which can cause problems.If the position of the trigger cap changes after being checked by the camera, the position where the transfer device picks it up will differ from the actual position of the trigger cap, which can also cause transfer problems.

[0009] The present invention has been made in consideration of such problems, and has an object to provide a work supplying device that can supply work so that it can be reliably picked up by the transfer device, even if the work is difficult to transport without interfering with other work pieces, such as caps with suction tubes or mayonnaise containers, which are prone to overlapping or rolling and are supplied to a transfer device that picks up work pieces based on imaging, and that can keep the processes in which work interference occurs to the shortest and smallest extent possible, thereby also saving space. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the work supplying device of the present invention comprises a supplying and conveying device having a supplying and conveying conveyor for transporting a work, an imaging device arranged so as to be able to image the placement state of the work transported by the supplying and conveying conveyor, and a transfer device which picks up the work from the supplying and conveying conveyor based on the detection result of the imaging device and places it at a transfer position, the supplying and conveying conveyor is composed of a conveyor belt in which placement sections for accommodating the work are formed by partition members arranged perpendicular to the running direction at predetermined intervals in the running direction on the placement surface of the work, and is arranged to have a lifter section which is inclined so as to gradually become higher from the work supply section upstream in the running direction toward the downstream side in the running direction, and a horizontal conveying section which is connected to the downstream end of the lifter section and aligns a plurality of placement sections in the running direction, the imaging device is arranged so as to image the work transported on the horizontal conveying section for each of the placement sections, and the robot is controlled to pick up and place one work for each of the placement sections in the horizontal conveying section downstream of the imaging position by the imaging device.

[0011] With a work supply device having this configuration, even if work interference occurs and one work is picked up by the transfer device and touches another work, shifting its position, the effect of the position shift is limited to each loading section, and it is possible to avoid shifting the position of a work placed in an adjacent loading section, so that transfer can be performed reliably using the transfer measure.

[0012] Furthermore, the height of the partition member is set to a dimension equal to or smaller than the thickness of a workpiece being transported in a loading position to be picked up by the transfer device.

[0013] With a work supply device having this configuration, when work pieces are transported through the lifter section, any work pieces that are stacked on top of one another and that are located at the top, or any work pieces whose center of gravity is higher than the partition member, can be slid down to the upstream work supply section, and the work pieces that are being transported in the loading position that is the target for pick-up by the transfer device can be left on the transport surface and transported to the horizontal transport section.

[0014] The workpiece is characterized in that it is a trigger cap having a cap body that is wrapped around the mouth of a bottle container, a pump section that is rotatably attached to the cap body, a nozzle that is attached toward the discharge side of the pump section, a cap section that has a trigger section that is connected to the pump and on which fingers of a hand are hooked, and a suction tube that is attached so as to hang down from the cap section to the liquid suction side of the pump section.

[0015] According to the above-mentioned work supply device, when the work is a trigger cap, even if the trigger cap is transported to the horizontal transport section with its nozzles crossed, the robot can reliably pick up and place one trigger cap. Effect of the Invention

[0016] As described above, according to the work supply device of the present invention, it is possible to save space, keep the processes in which work interference occurs to a minimum, and supply the work so that it can be reliably picked up by the transfer device. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0017] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing the main configuration of a work supply device according to the present invention; [Diagram 2]FIG. 2 is a plan view of the horizontal conveying section and its surroundings for explaining transfer by the work supply device of FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0018] The work supply device of this embodiment is configured as a whole as shown in Figure 1, and is a device that supplies trigger caps 51 as works to a transfer device 21 which aligns the nozzles 52 of the workpieces in a predetermined posture facing a fixed direction and transfers them to the loading surface 42 of an unloading device 41 from which the workpieces are sent to the next process.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 1, the work supply device 1 of this embodiment includes a supply conveying device 11 having a supply conveying conveyor 12 that continuously conveys trigger caps 2, a camera 31 as an imaging device provided near the conveying path of the supply conveying conveyor 12 and arranged to be able to image the placement state of the trigger caps 51 conveyed by the supply conveying conveyor 12, and a robot 25 as a transfer device that picks up the trigger caps 51 from the supply conveying conveyor 12 based on the detection result of the camera 31 and places them at a transfer position on the placement surface 42 of the unloading device 41.

[0020] The supply / transport conveyor 12 of the supply / transport device 11 has a conveyor belt 13 on the upper surface of which the trigger caps 51 are placed, and on the placement surface, a plurality of placement sections 15 for accommodating the trigger caps 51 are formed at predetermined intervals in the running direction by linear partition members 14 arranged perpendicular to the running direction. The conveyor belt 13 is stretched around a pair of pulleys 17 disposed between a pair of side walls 16, and can be circulated by the drive of a pulley motor 18 located downstream in the running direction. The height of the partition member 14 from the placement surface is set to a dimension equal to or less than the thickness of the trigger cap 51, specifically the cap portion, that is being transported in a placement position to be picked up by the robot 25.

[0021] In this embodiment, the supply / transport conveyor 12 is provided with a lifter section 20 inclined so that the conveyor belt 13 gradually becomes higher from the trigger cap supply section upstream in the running direction toward the downstream side in the running direction, and a horizontal transport section 21 that is arranged by extending horizontally from the downstream end of the lifter section 20 and aligns a plurality of (three sections in this embodiment) placement sections 15 in the running direction. That is, the lifter section 20 is formed on the base B by inclining the upstream end of the placement surface of the trigger caps 51 in the running direction at the time of supplying the trigger caps 51 horizontally in the hopper 19 as the trigger cap supply section and by inclining with an upward gradient so that the downstream end in the running direction is positioned at the upper position. The side wall 16 is formed by extending upward in the lifter section 20 so as to prevent the trigger caps 51 from falling to the side. As a result, the trigger caps 51 can be supplied and transported from the hopper 19 to the horizontal transport section 21 by the circular running of the conveyor belt 13.

[0022] As described above, the horizontal conveying section 21 continuing from the downstream end of the lifter section 20 has a length for aligning the three loading sections 15 in the traveling direction, and is supported by a frame F disposed on a base B. In the following description, the loading sections located downstream in the traveling direction of the horizontal conveying section 21 will be referred to as a first section 22A to a third section 22C.

[0023] In this embodiment, the trigger caps 51 transported by the supply and transport conveyor 12 to the downstream end of the horizontal transport section 21 slide directly into a collection box (not shown) outside the apparatus, where they are temporarily collected and returned to the hopper 19.

[0024] 1 and 2, the camera 31 is disposed on a stand 24 adjacent to the supply / transport conveyor 12 so as to photograph, in a plan view, the trigger caps 13 located in the loading section 15 that has reached the third partition area 22C each time the loading section 15 of the conveyor belt 13 is positioned in the third partition area 22C. The camera 31 can be controlled to photograph in accordance with the timing at which a sensor (not shown) provided on the side of the conveyor belt 13 detects the side surface of the partition member 14, for example.

[0025] The platform 24 is provided with a base (not shown) having a suction pad (not shown) for suction-holding the trigger cap 51 placed in the placement section 15, a vacuum (not shown) for turning suction on and off with the suction pad in contact with the smooth surface of the cap portion 53 of the trigger cap 51, and a robot 25 as a transfer device having an arm 26 for supporting the base so as to be movable up, down, left and right and rotatable in the horizontal direction. The robot 25 is controlled by a control means (not shown) so as to drive to pick up one trigger cap in a desired position at the timing when the placement section 15 reaches the second section 22B to the first section 22A based on the data captured by the camera 31 in the third section 22C.

[0026] In this embodiment, a belt conveyor 41 serving as a discharge device for sending the trigger cap 51 picked up by the robot 25 to the next process in a desired attitude is disposed in parallel to the horizontal transport section 21 in a plan view.

[0027] Next, the operation of the work supplying device 1 of this embodiment will be described. First, the trigger caps 51 to be transported are placed in the hopper 19 and stored therein, and the pulley motor 18 is driven to make the conveyor belt 13 continuously circulate.

[0028] In the lifter section 20, the traveling belt conveyor 13 scoops up the trigger caps 51 in the hopper with the partition member 14 and transports them as they are downstream in the traveling direction. At that time, trigger caps 51 that are stacked on top of each other and trigger caps 51 whose center of gravity is higher than the partition member are slid down into the upstream hopper 19, and trigger caps 15 transported in a flat-laid position to be picked up by the robot 25 are left in each placement section 15 on the transport surface and transported to the horizontal transport section 21.

[0029] As shown in Figures 1 and 2, when each loading section 15 in which the trigger cap 51 to be transported is placed in a flat, overturned position reaches the third section area 22C of the horizontal transport section 21, the camera 31 photographs the placement state of the trigger cap 51 in that loading section 15.

[0030] Based on the data captured by the camera 31, the robot 25 uses the partition members 14 that define the loading sections 15 and the positions of the side ends of the belt conveyor 13 as guides (coordinates, etc.) and adsorbs and holds the cap portion 53 of the trigger cap 51 that is placed and transported within each loading section 15 by turning on the vacuum connected to the suction pad of the base.

[0031] The robot 25 rotates the base horizontally and moves it up, down, left and right, so that the nozzle 52 of the cap part 53 is directed to one side in the traveling direction, and transfers the suction tube to the placement surface 42 of the belt conveyor 41 as the carrying-out means in a rolled-over state with the suction tube lined up on one side. After placing the trigger cap 51 on the belt conveyor 41 as the carrying-out device, the robot prepares to pick up another trigger cap 51 from the next placement section 15.

[0032] At this time, the robot 25 is controlled to pick up one trigger cap 51 for each of the placement sections 15 at the image capturing position of the camera 31, i.e., at the horizontal conveying section 21 downstream of the placement section area 22C. Therefore, even if interference between the trigger caps 51 occurs in each placement section 15 and the robot 25 touches another trigger cap 51 when picking up one trigger cap 51, causing the position to shift, the effect of the position shift extends only within each placement section 15, and it is possible to avoid shifting the position of the trigger cap 51 placed in the adjacent placement section 15.

[0033] In this way, according to the work supply device 1 of this embodiment, it is possible to prevent malfunctions such as the trigger cap 51 being shifted in position within the mounting section 15 after being photographed by the camera 31, so that the transfer of the trigger cap 51 by the robot 25 can be performed reliably.

[0034] The work supply device 1 of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be modified in various ways without impairing the characteristics of the present invention. It goes without saying that the work is not limited to a trigger cap.

[0035] Also, with regard to the discharge device 41, an appropriate discharge device 41 may be provided depending on the shape of the trigger cap, the work content in the next process, and the like.

[0036] Furthermore, the number of placement sections 15 arranged in the horizontal conveying section 21 is not limited to three as in this embodiment, and the number of the imaging devices 31 and the transfer devices 25 arranged is not limited to the number of the imaging devices 31 and the transfer devices 25 arranged in this embodiment. Specifically, the number of placement sections 15 arranged in the horizontal conveying section 21 is three, and one imaging device for photographing the third partitioned area 22C and one transfer device 25 each for the second partitioned area 22B and the first partitioned area 22A are arranged in total, and it is possible to control so that the workpieces are picked up simultaneously in the first partitioned area 22A and the second partitioned area 22B based on the data of the two placement sections 15 photographed continuously by the imaging device 313. In short, any design is possible by determining the correspondence between the imaging data of the imaging device 31 and the transfer device 25 that performs transfer based on the imaging data. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] 1 Work supply device 11 Supply and conveying device 12 Supply conveyor 13. Conveyor Belt 14 Partitioning material 15 Loading section 16 side wall 17 Pulley 18 Pulley motor 19 Trigger cap supply section (hopper) 20 Lifter section 21 Horizontal conveyor 22 Loading area 24 Mount 25 Transfer device (robot) 26 Arm 31 Imaging device (camera) 41 Discharge device (belt conveyor) 42 Placement surface 51 Trigger cap (work) 52 Nozzle 53 Cap section B Base F Frame

Claims

1. A supply conveying device including a supply conveying conveyor for conveying the workpiece; an imaging device arranged to be able to image the placement state of the workpieces being transported by the supply transport conveyor; A transfer device is provided which picks up a workpiece from the supply transport conveyor based on a detection result of the imaging device and places the workpiece at a transfer position, The supply transport conveyor is composed of a conveyor in which loading sections for accommodating the workpieces are formed by partition members arranged perpendicular to the running direction at predetermined intervals in the running direction on the workpiece loading surface, and is arranged to have a lifter section that is inclined so as to gradually become higher from the work supply section upstream in the running direction toward the downstream side in the running direction, and a horizontal transport section that is connected to the downstream end of the lifter section and aligns the multiple loading sections in the running direction, The imaging device is disposed so as to image the workpiece conveyed on the horizontal conveying section for each of the placement sections, The work supply device according to the present invention is characterized in that the robot is controlled to pick up and place one work for each of the placement sections in a horizontal transport section downstream of an imaging position of the imaging device.

2. 2. The work supply device according to claim 1, wherein the height of the partition member is set to a dimension equal to or smaller than a thickness of the work in a placement posture to be picked up by the transfer device.

3. The work supply device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the work is a trigger cap having a cap body that is wrapped around the mouth of a bottle container, a pump section that is rotatably attached to the cap body, a nozzle that is attached toward the discharge side of the pump section, a cap section that has a trigger section that is connected to the pump and on which a finger of a hand is hooked, and a suction tube that is attached so as to hang down from the cap section to the suction side of the pump section.

Images