High-speed auto-loading system and high-speed auto-loading method using the system

Abstract

To provide a high-speed auto-loading system and a high-speed auto-loading method using the system, which can automate and speed up tasks such as arranging and placing fresh foods such as meat in crates in fresh food processing centers and the like.SOLUTION: A high-speed auto-loading system 1 according to the present embodiment has: a destacking unit P having a function of destacking empty crates one by one from the uppermost crate; a product stationary unit Q having a function of quietly arranging products in the empty crate; and a stacking unit R having a function of stacking crates containing products in a predetermined number of stages.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention aims to automate and speed up the work of arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates in fresh food processing centers and the like. [Background technology]

[0002] Traditionally, most fresh foods such as meat sold at supermarkets and other stores are processed at locations called "fresh food processing centers," where the fresh foods are processed, packaged in individual containers, and arranged for delivery to each store. In these processes, stackable containers called "crates," as shown in C in Figure 7, are widely used as they are very suitable.

[0003] The crate C is generally made of a plastic material, and has a plurality of through holes in a lattice pattern on the bottom surface to reduce weight and improve drainage. The frame shape is designed so that the crates can be stacked stably. Although a crate is synonymous with a "container" and there is no difference between the two, the term "crate" is commonly used in the technical field to which the present invention pertains, and therefore the term "crate" will be used in the following explanation.

[0004] At the fresh food processing center, fresh food is packaged by placing appropriately processed fresh food on a food tray and covering the top with plastic film. At this time, labels with information such as the food's name, type, and price are also affixed. Based on the delivery quantity information for each delivery destination, the fresh food packaged in the tray is packed into crate C, and a crate label with the delivery destination, product name, and quantity information printed on it is affixed to crate C. Crate C is then stacked by store and type, and prepared for delivery to each store in the storage facility at the fresh food processing center.

[0005] Meanwhile, in such fresh produce processing centers, there is always a demand for improving work efficiency through automation and speeding up of work. This is because improving work efficiency makes it possible to further pursue cost reduction, avoidance of quality deterioration and long operating hours, improvement of the work environment, elimination of labor shortages, etc. Furthermore, since fresh foods basically need to be handled in a low-temperature environment of 4°C or less, improving work efficiency through automation and speeding up also meets this demand. For this reason, efforts are being made to automate and speed up many tasks in fresh produce processing centers.

[0006] However, due to the characteristics of fresh food packaging and crates, there are tasks that require human intervention and are very difficult to automate or speed up. There are two main tasks: one is to unstack empty crates that have been stacked, and the other is to gently line up food trays containing fresh food inside the empty crates.

[0007] [Taking apart stacked empty crates] This work is required when the crates used have a stacking function as well as a nesting function, which allows the overall height of empty crates to be lower when stacked than when filled with products.

[0008] This function is generally achieved by changing the orientation of the upper and lower crates by 180 degrees. Therefore, if the crates are all stacked in the same orientation, they can be stacked in a stacked state, while if they are stacked by changing the orientation of each crate by 180 degrees, they can be stacked in a nested state. Note that such crates are already a publicly known technology and are disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1 (JP Patent Publication 2007-137479) and the like.

[0009] After the fresh food is delivered to each store, the crates are returned empty to the fresh food processing center for reuse. At this time, in order to save space during storage and transportation, if the crates are nestable, they are stacked in a nested state after they are emptied until the food trays are placed back into the crates.

[0010] Therefore, at the fresh produce processing center, when the crates are to be packed again, the nested crates must be separated one by one, and then the orientation of the crates must be alternately changed by 180° so that the crates can be stacked again. However, these tasks have not yet been properly automated, and the problem of the necessity for worker intervention has not been resolved.

[0011] In addition, there is prior art equipment that can disassemble nested stacked crates one level at a time, but this is extremely inefficient because it requires disassembling the crates from the bottom up and the orientation of the crates needs to be changed manually (Patent Documents 2 and 3).

[0012] [The task of gently arranging food trays filled with fresh produce inside an empty crate] This task has not yet been successfully automated. This is due to the characteristics of fresh food packaging and the fact that many of the products themselves are delicate. In automating the arranging task, methods that utilize gripping or suction or a shuttle conveyor (an extendable conveyor that shortens from the extended end and sequentially drops the transported items) are common. However, the gripping or suction method is not suitable for packaging fresh foods because the plastic film covering the food tray is very easily torn, and coupled with the thickness and shape of the food tray. In addition, the shuttle conveyor method is also not suitable for packaging fresh foods because the impact of the drop (drop) damages the fresh foods. Therefore, the problem of the necessity for worker intervention to gently arrange food trays containing fresh foods in an empty crate has not been resolved.

[0013] These tasks that cannot be automated require human intervention, but tasks that require human intervention are clearly inferior to automated tasks in terms of accuracy and speed. In addition, there is a strong demand from the workplace for the promotion of task automation in the current chronic labor shortage situation.

[0014] The task of sorting items into crates based on the information printed on the labels requires both speed and accuracy, which places a great mental burden on the workers. In addition, the task of repeatedly carrying crates weighing over 1 kg and food trays in a low-temperature environment places a great physical burden on the workers, and for these reasons, automation of the task is also desired.

[0015] Furthermore, although fresh foods are required to be handled in a low-temperature environment, the work area where the foods are sorted into crates is often kept at a temperature above 4°C in order to reduce the burden on workers. Therefore, the sorting work and the subsequent transportation to the storage facility must be carried out quickly. In addition, if a mistake is made during the sorting work, further delays will occur due to the need to correct the mistake, reducing work efficiency. Furthermore, if the work time is increased in a relatively high-temperature environment, there is a risk that the quality of the fresh foods will deteriorate.

[0016] The inventors of the present application have conducted extensive research to resolve the above-mentioned problems, and as a result have discovered that the above-mentioned problems can be resolved by incorporating into the loading system a unit that has a function for rotating the crate one by one from the top level by 90 degrees forward or backward as necessary to disassemble the crates, and a unit that has a function for gently arranging products in an empty crate. Based on this knowledge, the inventors have created the present invention.

[0017] In addition, when filing the application for the present invention, the applicant and inventor of the present application searched past patent documents, etc., and were able to find the following documents in the technical field to which the present invention pertains, but were unable to find any patent documents that detailed the technical ideas, etc., relating to the present invention. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0018] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-137479 A [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 4-201925 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-16243 [Patent Document 4] Special Publication No. 5-63362 [Patent Document 5] Jpn. Jpn. Published No. 50-24444 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0019] The present invention aims to provide a high-speed auto-loading system and a high-speed auto-loading method using said system, which can automate and speed up tasks such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates at fresh food processing centers, etc., by incorporating into the loading system a unit with a function of rotating each crate one by one 90 degrees forward or backward as necessary, starting from the top crate, and a unit with a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate. [Means for solving the problem]

[0020] As a means for achieving this, the high-speed auto-loading system of the present invention has a de-tiering unit, a product settling unit, and a stacking unit. The de-tiering unit is a unit with a function of de-tiering a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state, one crate at a time starting from the topmost crate, and has a lift device, an empty crate carrying-in device, and a gripping type crate transport device. The product settling unit is a unit with a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, and has a gripping type crate transport device, a sliding table, and a pinholder-shaped lifting type support table. The stacking unit is a unit with a function of stacking a predetermined number of crates containing products, and has a gripping type crate transport device and a product-containing crate carrying-out device. The lift device has a lift table and a lifting mechanism for moving the lift table up and down. The empty crate carrying-in device is configured to supply a plurality of empty crates onto the lift table while they are still stacked. The gripping type crate transport device the sliding table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and products to be placed in the crate are arranged on its upper surface, and the sliding table is configured to move horizontally above the crate, so that the products arranged on the upper surface fall onto the multiple support pins of the lifting support table; the pin-holder-shaped lifting support table has a lifting mechanism and has multiple support pins on its upper surface, and the multiple support pins are arranged so as to pass through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom side of the crate, and the upper ends of the multiple support pins can move up and down within any range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate by the action of the lifting mechanism; and the product-loaded crate discharge device is configured to discharge stacked product-loaded crates to the outside of the system.

[0021] In this case, the high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention is also characterized in that the gripping type crate transport device further comprises a horizontal rotation mechanism for horizontally rotating the gripping mechanism.

[0022] In this case, the high-speed autoloading system according to the present invention is also characterized in that the product-containing crate discharge device is also equipped with the lift device.

[0023] Furthermore, the de-stack unit applied to a part of the high-speed auto-loading system of the present invention has the function of de-stacking multiple empty crates supplied in a stacked state, one crate at a time starting from the topmost crate, and has an empty crate loading device, a lift device, and a gripping type crate transport device, the lift device having a lift table and a lifting mechanism for moving the lift table up and down, the empty crate loading device being configured to supply multiple empty crates in a stacked state onto the lift table, and the gripping type crate transport device having a gripping mechanism with the function of gripping a crate with a gripping portion, and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism horizontally.

[0024] The product placement unit, which is applied as part of the high-speed autoloading system according to the present invention, has a function of gently arranging products inside an empty crate, and includes a gripping type crate transport device, a sliding table, and a pinholder-shaped lifting support table. The gripping type crate transport device has a gripping mechanism with a gripping section that grips a crate, and a horizontal movement mechanism that moves the gripping mechanism horizontally. The sliding table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and the products to be placed inside the crate are arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table. The crate is configured so that when a lifting mechanism moves horizontally above the crate, products arranged on its upper surface fall onto the multiple support pins of the lifting support table, and the pin-holder-shaped lifting support table is equipped with a lifting mechanism and has multiple support pins on its upper surface, and the multiple support pins are arranged so that they pass through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom side of the crate, and the upper ends of the multiple support pins are configured so that they can move up and down within any range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate by the action of the lifting mechanism.

[0025] Furthermore, the method according to the present invention is characterized in that a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state are destacked one by one starting from the top crate using the destack unit described above.

[0026] Furthermore, the method of the present invention is a method of gently arranging products in a crate using the above-mentioned product placement unit, and is characterized in that it includes the steps of: passing the multiple support pins through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate and positioning their upper ends at a position lower than the height of the underside of the sliding table; closing the top surface of the crate with the sliding table; arranging the products on the top surface of the sliding table; sliding the sliding table to open the top of the crate again while preventing the products from being pulled by the sliding table 7 and moving, and gently dropping the products onto the multiple support pins; and lowering the multiple support pins and moving them so that their upper ends are lower than the bottom surface of the crate, thereby arranging the products on the bottom surface of the crate. Effect of the Invention

[0027] According to the present invention, by incorporating into the loading system a unit with the function of rotating each crate one by one 90 degrees forward or backward as needed, starting from the top crate, and a unit with the function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, it is possible to provide a high-speed auto-loading system and a high-speed auto-loading method using said system, which can automate and speed up tasks such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates in fresh food processing centers, etc. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0028] [Figure 1] Schematic diagram of a high-speed autoloading system 1 according to the present embodiment. [Diagram 2] Schematic diagram of de-stacking unit P [Diagram 3] Schematic diagram of de-stacking unit P [Figure 4] Schematic diagram of a high-speed autoloading system 1 according to the present embodiment. [Diagram 5] A schematic diagram showing the process in which the product placement unit Q gently places products in a crate C. [Figure 6] A diagram showing a pinholder-shaped lift-up support table 8, etc. [Figure 7] Stacked Crate C DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0029] Hereinafter, a high-speed autoloading system according to the present invention and an embodiment for implementing a high-speed autoloading method using the system will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a high-speed autoloading system 1 according to this embodiment (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "this system 1"). This system 1 basically has a de-stacking unit P, a product stationary unit Q, and a stacking unit R.

[0030] First, the de-stack unit P will be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. The de-stack unit P has a function of de-stacking a plurality of empty crates C, which are supplied stacked in a nested state, one crate at a time, starting from the top crate. Basically, the de-stack unit P has an empty crate carry-in device 2, a lift device 3, and a grip-type crate transport device 4.

[0031] The empty crate carry-in device 2 is made up of a known transport device such as a roller conveyor, and is configured to supply a plurality of empty crates C in a stacked state onto the table 3a of the lift device 3. The lift device 3 also uses a known lifting device, and is configured to be able to move the table 3a up and down within a desired range.

[0032] The gripping type crate transport device 4 has a gripping mechanism 4a with a gripping section that has the function of gripping a crate C, and a horizontal movement mechanism 4b that moves the gripping mechanism 4a horizontally, and is configured to grip empty crates C stacked on the table 3a one by one from the top tier, and transport them horizontally (disassembling the tiers). The gripping mechanism 4a is capable of lifting the crate C slightly after gripping it, and also has the function of disengaging the upper and lower stacked crates C from each other. In this embodiment, a known technology using rails is applied as the horizontal movement mechanism 4b.

[0033] The gripping type crate transport device 4 also has a horizontal rotation mechanism 4C that rotates the gripping mechanism 4a horizontally, so that the crates C can be transported horizontally and rotated at the same time. This allows the crates C to be placed in a stacked state by rotating them 90 degrees forward and backward when they are subsequently stacked after being de-tiered. The crates C transported one by one by the de-tiering unit P are then placed on a roller conveyor 5 that functions as a crate transport device, and are transported to the product placement unit Q.

[0034] In this way, the de-tiering unit P is configured to transport the crate C horizontally and rotate it at the same time, i.e., to simultaneously transport and rotate the crate C, so that de-tiering work can be performed at a much higher speed than before. Conventionally, two different operations were performed separately, such as rotating the crate C de-tiered from the bottom tier by 90 degrees (rotating operation) using a conveyor with a rotating function and then transporting it to the roller conveyor 5 (transport operation), or transporting the de-tiered crate C to the roller conveyor 5 (transport operation) and then rotating the roller conveyor 5 with a rotating function by 90 degrees (rotating operation), which increased the overall operation time and made it impossible to speed up the work.

[0035] Next, the product setting unit Q will be described. Figure 4 is also a schematic diagram of the present system 1, showing the present system 1 from a different angle than that of Figure 1. The product setting unit Q has a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate C, and basically has a gripping crate transport device 4, a fixed table 6, a sliding table 7, and a pinholder-shaped liftable support table 8.

[0036] The gripping type crate transport device 4 is the same device as that in the de-tiering unit P. Therefore, it has the gripping mechanism 4a, horizontal movement mechanism 4b, and horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, and has the same functions. However, it is sufficient that the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C is provided in either the de-tiering unit P or the product stilling unit Q. This is because, if at least one of the units has the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, it is possible to align the orientation of the crates C so that they are in a stacked state.

[0037] The fixed table 6 and the sliding table 7 are made of smooth plates, and the products to be placed in the crate C are arranged on their upper surfaces. As shown in Fig. 6, the pinholder-shaped lifting support table 8 is equipped with a lifting mechanism 9 and has a number of support pins 10 and positioning pins 11 on its upper surface.

[0038] 4 and 6, the support pins 10 are arranged to pass through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate C from the bottom side of the crate C, and are configured so that the support pins 10 can move up and down within a predetermined range in the vertical direction by the action of the lifting mechanism 9. Note that this predetermined range refers to a range in which the upper end of the support pin 10 is lower than the lower side of the sliding table 7 on the upper side, and a range in which the upper end of the support pin 10 is lower than the lower side of the crate C on the lower side. Furthermore, in the upper side of this range of vertical movement, the distance between the upper end of the support pin 10 and the lower side of the sliding table 7 is preferably within 15 mm in order to suppress the impact when the product is dropped.

[0039] Incidentally, Patent Documents 4 and 5 also appear to disclose technologies similar to the support pin 10 of the present invention at first glance, but their specific functions and effects are completely different from those of the present invention.

[0040] The invention described in Patent Document 4 is intended to prevent products from being displaced when they are dropped parabolically from a high-positioned transport conveyor into a crate. Patent Document 4 does not describe or suggest anything equivalent to the sliding table 7 of the present invention. Therefore, the invention described in Patent Document 4 does not allow the products to be gently arranged in a crate, as in the present invention, and the impact that may be given to the products when they are dropped is significant.

[0041] In addition, the invention described in Patent Document 5 supports the bottle (product) from below with only one support pin (the present invention is configured to place the support pins closely together to stably support the product). Therefore, when placing the products in the crate, if there is a gap between the adjacent products or the inner surface of the crate (if the products are not closely packed in the crate), the products will slip sideways or fall over, and the products cannot be placed in the crate while maintaining the horizontality as in the present invention (with the present invention, it is not a problem even if the products are not closely packed in the crate. Even if there is only one product, it can be placed in the crate quietly). Furthermore, the invention described in Patent Document 5 only assumes the case where the product is higher than the height of the crate, so after the product is placed in the crate by lowering only one support pin, it is necessary to lower the crate itself (two lowering operations are required), and it is not configured to eliminate the need to lower the crate itself as in the present invention (only one lowering operation is required in the present invention). Incidentally, the invention described in Patent Document 5 only assumes that the product will be taller than the crate, because it describes that the position of the through hole in the bottom of the crate is slightly offset from the center of the product.

[0042] For the above reasons, it is not possible to automate or speed up the task of gently arranging food trays containing fresh food in an empty crate by applying the technologies described in Patent Documents 4 and 5. In this respect, the inventions described in Patent Documents 4 and 5 are fundamentally different from the present invention.

[0043] The positioning pin 11 functions as a guide by penetrating two or more of the through holes provided at the four corners of the bottom surface of the crate C. Although the crate C is an industry standard product, warping or bending may occur due to frequency of use, usage environment, deterioration, etc. Even in this case, if the positioning pin 11 is present, the position of the crate and the support pin 10 can be positioned with high precision, and problems such as the support pin 10 pushing up the bottom of the crate can be avoided. The positioning pin 11 can be moved up and down by a mechanism (not shown) separate from the lifting mechanism 9 so that it can rise and be positioned before the support pin. In addition, it is preferable that the positioning pin 11 has a thin upper end that is not sharp so that it can function suitably as a guide.

[0044] Furthermore, other than arranging two positioning pins 11 diagonally, three of the four corners or four at all four corners may be arranged. Note that, even if positioning pins 11 are not required, such as in a site where only crates without warping or bending are used, if multiple support pins 10 can penetrate through holes provided in the bottom surface of crate C from the bottom surface side of crate C without any problem, positioning pins 11 may be omitted.

[0045] The following provides a more detailed explanation of the flow in which the product settling unit Q gently arranges products in an empty crate C. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing this flow, in which 12 indicates the products (packaged food trays) to be arranged in the crate C.

[0046] First, as shown in Fig. 5(A), a plurality of support pins 10 are inserted through holes provided on the bottom surface of the crate C, and the upper ends of the support pins 10 are placed at a position lower than the height of the lower surface of the sliding table 7. Then, the products 12 are placed on the upper surface of the fixed table 6. At this point, the upper surface of the crate C is closed by the sliding table 7. Although not shown here, if positioning pins are also provided, when the crate C arrives at a predetermined position in the stilling unit Q, the positioning pins are first inserted through the through holes in the four corners of the bottom surface of the crate C to position the crate C, and then the plurality of support pins 10 are inserted through the bottom surface of the crate C.

[0047] From this state, as shown in Figure 5 (B), the products 12 are pushed by the push plate 13 and moved to the upper surface of the sliding table 7, until a predetermined number of products 12 are arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table 7 as shown in Figure 5 (C).

[0048] 5(D), the sliding table 7 is slid (from left to right in the figure) to open the top of the crate C. At this time, the stopper plate 14 prevents the product 12 from being pulled by the sliding table 7 and moving. This allows the product 12 to gently drop onto the multiple support pins 10.

[0049] Then, the products 12 that have fallen gently onto the support pins 10 are gently arranged on the bottom surface of the crate C as the support pins 10 descend and the upper ends of the support pins 10 move below the bottom surface of the crate C, as shown in FIG. 5(E). The sliding table 7 is adapted to quickly move back above the crate C after the products 12 have been arranged. In this way, the sliding table 7 basically moves above the crate C and keeps the top surface of the crate C closed, except when the products 12 fall gently onto the support pins 10. This is the flow by which the products 12 are gently arranged inside the crate C by the product settling unit Q.

[0050] Because the product stilling unit Q is configured as described above, even food trays containing fresh foods can be gently arranged and placed inside the crate, and these operations can be automated and accelerated without damaging the products. Note that in order to gently arrange and place the products 12, the multiple support pins 10 must be arranged closely enough to fill the bottom surface of the crate C without any gaps when they penetrate it, as shown in Figure 6.

[0051] The above describes the operation in which products are stacked in only one layer, but depending on the height of the products and the effective height of the crate, if the lifting mechanism 9 is appropriately moved and the support pins 10 are lowered by the height of the products between the first layer being stacked and the second layer being stacked, the products in the second layer can also be gently stacked in the crate. In addition, when stacking three or more layers, it is possible to do so by lowering the support pins 10 in the same way. However, Patent Document 5 does not state or suggest that products are stacked in two or more layers. The invention described in Patent Document 5 only assumes the processing of products that are longer in height than in width, such as bottles, and in this respect, it is fundamentally different from the present invention.

[0052] In the above embodiment, a known conveying means may be appropriately used as the means for placing the product 12 on the upper surface of the fixed table 6. Also, in the above embodiment, the push plate 13 is used as the means for moving the product 12 from the upper surface of the fixed table 6 to the upper surface of the sliding table 7, but a known conveying means may also be appropriately used for this moving means.

[0053] In the above embodiment, the product stilling unit Q is described as using two tables, the fixed table 6 and the sliding table 7, but the fixed table 6 can be replaced with a product storage type transport conveyor. Also, if the sliding table 7 is configured to move to the position of the fixed table 6, it is possible to configure the product stilling unit Q without using the fixed table 6.

[0054] Finally, the stacking unit R will be described again with reference to Fig. 4. The stacking unit R is a unit with a function of stacking a predetermined number of crates containing products, and basically includes a gripping type crate transport device 4 and a product-containing crate discharge device 15.

[0055] This gripping type crate transport device 4 is the same device as that possessed by the de-stack unit P and the product stationary unit Q. Accordingly, it has the gripping mechanism 4a, the horizontal movement mechanism 4b, and the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, and has the same functions. However, for the reasons mentioned above, the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C may be omitted from the stacked unit R, since it only needs to be provided in any of the units. Also, the gripping type crate transport device 4 may be shared with the product stationary unit Q, and the stacking unit R and the product stationary unit Q may have one gripping type crate transport device 4.

[0056] The product-containing crate discharge device 15 is configured to discharge the stacked product-containing crates C to the outside of this system using a known loading device. Note that the stacking unit R may be omitted if stacking of crates containing products is not required due to the operation or function of downstream equipment. [Industrial Applicability]

[0057] According to the present invention, by incorporating into the loading system a unit with the function of rotating each crate one by one 90 degrees forward or backward as needed, starting from the top crate, and a unit with the function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, it is possible to provide a high-speed auto-loading system and a high-speed auto-loading method using said system, which can automate and speed up tasks such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates in fresh food processing centers, etc.

Claims

1. A high-speed autoloading system having a de-stacking unit, a product placement unit, and a stacking unit, The de-stack unit is a unit having a function of de-stacking a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state one by one starting from the top crate, and includes a lift device, an empty crate carrying device, and a gripping type crate transport device; The product placement unit is a unit having a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, and includes a gripping type crate transport device, a sliding table, and a pinholder-shaped lifting support table; The stacking unit is a unit having a function of stacking a predetermined number of crates containing products, and includes a gripping type crate transport device and a product-containing crate carrying-out device; The lift device includes a lift table and a lifting mechanism for moving the lift table up and down. The empty crate loading device is configured to supply a plurality of empty crates in a stacked state onto the lift table, The gripping type crate transport device has a gripping mechanism having a function of gripping a crate with a gripping part, and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in a horizontal direction, The sliding table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and the products to be placed in the crate are arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table, and the sliding table is configured to move horizontally above the crate so that the products arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table fall onto the multiple support pins of the lift-up support table; The pinholder-shaped lifting support table is equipped with a lifting mechanism and has a plurality of support pins on its upper surface, the plurality of support pins being arranged to pass through through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom surface side of the crate, and the upper ends of the plurality of support pins are configured to be able to move up and down within any range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate by the action of the lifting mechanism, A high-speed auto-loading system, characterized in that the product-loaded crate discharge device is configured to discharge stacked product-loaded crates to the outside of the system.

2. 2. The high-speed autoloading system according to claim 1, wherein said gripping type crate transport device further comprises a horizontal rotation mechanism for horizontally rotating said gripping mechanism.

3. 2. The high-speed autoloading system according to claim 1, wherein said product-containing crate discharge device also includes said lift device.

4. A destacking unit that is applied to a part of a high-speed autoloading system, The system has the function of removing multiple empty crates that are supplied in a stacked state, one by one, starting from the top crate. The system includes an empty crate carrying device, a lift device, and a gripping type crate transport device, The lift device includes a lift table and a lifting mechanism for moving the lift table up and down. The empty crate loading device is configured to supply a plurality of empty crates in a stacked state onto the lift table, The gripping type crate transport device is a de-stacking unit characterized by having a gripping mechanism with a gripping portion that has the function of gripping a crate, and a horizontal movement mechanism that moves the gripping mechanism horizontally.

5. A product placement unit that is applied as part of a high-speed autoloading system and has a function of gently placing products in an empty crate, The crate transport device has a gripping type crate transport device, a sliding table, and a pinholder-shaped lifting support table. The gripping type crate transport device has a gripping mechanism having a function of gripping a crate with a gripping part, and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in a horizontal direction, The sliding table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and the products to be placed in the crate are arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table, and the sliding table is configured to move horizontally above the crate so that the products arranged on the upper surface of the sliding table fall onto the multiple support pins of the lift-up support table; The product placement unit is characterized in that the pin-shaped lifting support table is equipped with a lifting mechanism and has a number of support pins on its upper surface, the number of support pins being arranged so as to pass through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom side of the crate, and the upper ends of the number of support pins are configured to be able to move up and down within any range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate by the action of the lifting mechanism.

6. A method for de-stack a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state, one crate at a time starting from the top crate, using the de-stack unit according to claim 4.

7. 6. A method for gently arranging products in a crate using the product stabilizing unit of claim 5, comprising: A step of inserting the plurality of support pins through through holes provided on the bottom surface of the crate so that the upper ends of the support pins are positioned at a position lower than the height of the lower surface of the sliding table; closing the top surface of the crate by the sliding table; placing products on an upper surface of the sliding table; a step of sliding the sliding table 7 to reopen the top of the crate while preventing the product from being pulled by the sliding table 7 and gently dropping the product onto the plurality of support pins; and a step of lowering the plurality of support pins and moving them so that their upper ends are below the bottom surface of the crate, thereby arranging the products on the bottom surface of the crate.

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