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] An object of the present invention is to automate and speed up the operation of arranging fresh foods such as meat in a crate in a fresh food processing center or the like.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, many fresh foods such as meat sold in supermarkets and the like are processed, packaged into individual containers, and arranged for delivery to each store at a base called a "fresh food processing center". In these operations, a stackable container called a "crate" as shown at C in FIG. 7 is widely used as a very suitable one.

[0003] The crate C is generally made of a plastic material. In order to reduce its weight and improve drainage, a plurality of through holes are provided in a lattice mesh shape on its bottom surface. Also, the frame shape is designed so that the crates can be stacked stably. Note that the crate is synonymous with the "container" and there is no difference between the two, but in the technical field to which the present invention belongs, it is common to call it a "crate", so the term will be uniformly described as "crate" hereinafter.

[0004] In the fresh food processing center, the appropriately processed fresh food is placed on a food tray and covered with a plastic film from above to package the fresh food. At this time, a label with information such as the name, type, and price of the food is also attached. Based on the delivery destination and delivery quantity information, the fresh food packaged in the tray is packed into the crate C, and then a crate label with the delivery destination, product name, and quantity information is pasted on the crate C. After that, the crates C are stacked by store or type and stored in the storage in the fresh food processing center in preparation for delivery to each store.

[0005] By the way, in such a fresh food processing center, there is always a demand for improving work efficiency through automation and speeding up of work. This is because by improving work efficiency, it becomes possible to further pursue cost reduction, prevention of quality degradation and long working hours, improvement of the workplace environment, elimination of labor shortages, and so on. In addition, since fresh food basically requires handling in a low-temperature environment of 4°C or lower, improving work efficiency through automation and speeding up can meet this requirement. Therefore, automation and speeding up are being promoted for many operations in the fresh food processing center.

[0006] However, due to the characteristics of the packaging of fresh food and the crates, it is difficult to avoid the intervention of workers, and there are operations that are very difficult to automate or speed up. There are mainly two such operations. One is the operation of separating stacked empty crates, and the other is the operation of gently arranging food trays containing fresh food in empty crates.

[0007] [Operation of separating stacked empty crates] This operation is required when the crates used have not only a stacking function (stackable function) but also a nesting function. The nesting function is a function that can make the overall height of the stacked empty crates lower than the overall height of the stacked crates with products inside.

[0008] And generally, this function is achieved by changing the orientation of the upper and lower crates by 180°. Therefore, if the crates are stacked in the same orientation, they can be stacked in a stacked state, while if they are stacked with the orientation changed by 180° alternately one by one, they can be stacked in a nested state. Such crates are already known technologies and are disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-137479) and the like.

[0009] After fresh food is delivered to each store, the crates are returned to the fresh food processing center in an empty state and reused. At this time, in order to save space during storage and transportation, after the inside of the crate becomes empty, until immediately before the food tray is put back into the crate again, in the case of nesting crates, they are stacked in a nested state.

[0010] Therefore, at the fresh food processing center, when repacking the crates again, it is necessary to unstack the crates stacked in a nested state one by one, and then change the orientation of the crates alternately by 180° each time so that they can be stacked in a stacked state. And the automation of these operations has not been suitably implemented yet, and the problem that the intervention of workers is inevitable could not be solved.

[0011] As a conventional technique, there is a device for unstacking crates stacked in a nested state one by one, etc., but since it is necessary to unstack them in order from the bottom and change the orientation of the crates manually, it is very inefficient (Patent Documents 2 and 3).

[0012] [Operation of gently arranging food trays containing fresh food in an empty crate] This operation also cannot be suitably automated at present. This is due to the characteristics of the packaging of fresh food and the fact that many of the products themselves are delicate. For the operation of arranging, in automation, methods using gripping or suction and methods using a shuttle conveyor (a telescopic conveyor drops the conveyed object sequentially while shortening from the extended end) are common. However, the method using gripping or suction is not suitable for the packaging of fresh food because the plastic film covering the food tray is very easily torn, and combined with the thickness and shape of the food tray. Also, the method using a shuttle conveyor is not suitable for the packaging of fresh food because the impact during dropping (throwing) damages the fresh food. Therefore, the problem that the intervention of workers is inevitable could not be solved for the operation of gently arranging food trays containing fresh food in an empty crate either.

[0013] The existence of tasks that cannot be automated requires operator intervention, but the tasks performed by operators are clearly inferior to automated tasks in terms of accuracy and speed. In addition, promoting the automation of tasks is strongly demanded at the work site under the current chronic shortage of human resources.

[0014] The task of sorting into crates based on the information printed on the labels requires both accuracy and speed, so the mental burden on the operator is enormous. Also, in a low-temperature environment, tasks such as repeatedly carrying crates weighing over 1 kg or food trays impose a very large physical burden on the operator, and automation of these tasks is also demanded from these aspects.

[0015] Furthermore, although fresh food requires handling in a low-temperature environment, the workplaces for sorting into crates often have a temperature exceeding 4°C from the perspective of reducing the burden on operators. Therefore, the sorting work and the subsequent transportation to the storage should be carried out promptly. In addition, if mistakes occur during the sorting work, further delays will occur for the recovery work, resulting in a decrease in work efficiency. Also, an increase in the working time in an environment with a relatively high temperature may lead to a deterioration in the quality of fresh food.

[0016] The inventor of the present application has intensively studied to solve the problems described above. As a result, by incorporating both a unit with a function of stepwise unloading by rotating forward and backward 90 degrees one by one as needed from the topmost crate and a unit with a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate into the loading system, the inventor obtained the knowledge that the problems described above can be solved, and based on this, the present invention was created.

[0017] In applying for the present invention, when the applicant and the inventor of the present application investigated past patent documents and the like, although the following documents could be found in the technical field to which the present invention pertains, no patent document that details the technical idea and the like according to the present invention could be found.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0018]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Patent Document 3

Patent Document 4

Patent Document 5

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0019] The present invention aims to provide a high-speed auto-loading system that can automate and speed up operations such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates in a fresh process center, etc., by incorporating units with functions such as step-by-step discharging by rotating forward and backward 90 degrees one by one as needed from the topmost crate, and units with functions such as gently arranging products in empty crates, into a loading system, and a high-speed auto-loading method using the system.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0020] As a means therefor, the high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention includes a crate separating unit, a product resting unit, and a stacking unit. The crate separating unit is a unit having a function of separating a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state one by one from the uppermost crate, and includes a lift device, an empty crate loading device, and a gripping-type crate conveying device. The product resting unit is a unit having a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, and includes a gripping-type crate conveying device, a slide table, and a hedgehog-shaped elevating 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 conveying device and a loaded-crate unloading 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 conveying device includes a gripping mechanism having a function of gripping a crate by a gripping portion and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in the horizontal direction. The slide table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and products to be placed in the crate are arranged on its upper surface. By the slide table moving horizontally above the crate, the products arranged on its upper surface are configured to fall onto a plurality of the support pins of the elevating support table. The hedgehog-shaped elevating support table is provided with a lifting mechanism and has a plurality of support pins on its upper surface. The plurality of support pins are arranged to penetrate a through hole provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom surface side of the crate. By the action of the lifting mechanism, the upper ends of the plurality of support pins are configured to be movable up and down within an arbitrary range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate. The loaded-crate unloading device is configured to unload the stacked crates containing products 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, in the gripping-type crate conveying device, it further includes a horizontal rotation mechanism for horizontally rotating the gripping mechanism.

[0022] Also, in this case, the high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention is also characterized in that, in the crate unloading device with products, it also includes the lifting device.

[0023] Furthermore, the layer separation unit applied to a part of the high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention has a function of separating a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state one by one from the uppermost crate, and includes an empty crate loading device, a lifting device, and a gripping-type crate conveying device. The lifting device has 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 conveying device is characterized by having a gripping mechanism with a function of gripping a crate by a gripping part and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in the horizontal direction.

[0024] In addition, the product static placement unit applied to a part of the high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention has a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, and includes a gripping-type crate conveying device, a slide-type table, and a sword-shaped elevating support table. The gripping-type crate conveying device has a gripping mechanism with a function of gripping a crate by a gripping part and a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in the horizontal direction. The slide-type table has a function of moving horizontally above the crate, and products to be placed in the crate are arranged on its upper surface. By moving horizontally above the crate, the products arranged on the upper surface of the slide-type table are configured to fall onto the plurality of support pins of the elevating support table. The sword-shaped elevating support table is provided with an elevating mechanism and has a plurality of support pins on its upper surface. The plurality of support pins are arranged so as to penetrate a through hole provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom surface side of the crate. By the action of the elevating mechanism, the upper ends of the plurality of support pins are configured to be able to move up and down within an arbitrary range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate.

[0025] Furthermore, the method according to the present invention is characterized in that a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state are unpacked one by one from the uppermost crate using the aforementioned unpacking unit.

[0026] Also, the method according to the present invention is a method of gently arranging products in a crate using the above-described product standing unit, wherein the plurality of support pins penetrate through through-holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate, and the upper ends thereof are positioned at a height lower than the lower surface of the slide table; closing the upper surface of the crate with the slide table; arranging the products on the upper surface of the slide table; sliding the slide table while preventing the products from being pulled and moved on the slide table 7, and reopening the upper surface of the crate, and gently dropping the products onto the plurality of support pins; and lowering the plurality of support pins and moving the upper ends thereof to be below the bottom surface of the crate, thereby arranging the products on the bottom surface of the crate. It is characterized by gently arranging products in a crate.

Advantages of the Invention

[0027] According to the present invention, by incorporating units having functions such as rotating forward and backward 90 degrees one by one as needed from the topmost crate for staging, and units having functions of gently arranging products in an empty crate, etc. into a loading system, in a fresh process center or the like, it is possible to automate and speed up operations such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in a crate, and a high-speed auto-loading system, and a high-speed auto-loading method using the system can be provided.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0028]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Embodiments for Carrying out the Invention

[0029] Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out a high-speed auto-loading system according to the present invention and a high-speed auto-loading method using the system will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a high-speed auto-loading system 1 (hereinafter also simply referred to as "this system 1") according to the present embodiment. This system 1 basically has a depalletizing unit P, a product standing unit Q, and a stacking unit R.

[0030] First, the depalletizing unit P will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The depalletizing unit P has a function of depalletizing a plurality of empty crates C supplied in a nested and stacked state one by one from the uppermost crate, and basically has an empty crate loading device 2, a lift device 3, and a gripping-type crate conveying device 4.

[0031] The empty crate loading device 2 is composed of a known conveying 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 applies a known lifting device and is configured to be able to move the table 3a up and down within an arbitrary range.

[0032] The gripping-type crate conveying device 4 has a gripping mechanism 4a with a function of gripping the crate C by a gripping part, and a horizontal movement mechanism 4b for moving the gripping mechanism 4a in the horizontal direction. It is configured to grip the empty crates C stacked on the table 3a one by one from the topmost layer and then convey them in the horizontal direction (unstack them). Note that after gripping the crate C, the gripping mechanism 4a can lift the crate C slightly and also has a function of releasing the fitting between the stacked crates C. In this embodiment, as the horizontal movement mechanism 4b, a known technique using rails is applied.

[0033] The gripping-type crate conveying device 4 also has a horizontal rotation mechanism 4C for horizontally rotating the gripping mechanism 4a, and the crate C can be rotated while being conveyed in the horizontal direction. As a result, when stacking the unstacked crates C later, the orientation of the crates C can be changed by 90° forward and backward so that the crates C are in a stacking state. Then, the crates C conveyed one by one by the unstacking unit P are placed on a roller conveyor 5 that functions as a crate conveying device and are conveyed to the product standing unit Q.

[0034] As described above, the unstacking unit P is configured to rotate the crate C while conveying it in the horizontal direction, that is, it can perform the conveying operation and the rotation operation of the crate C simultaneously. Therefore, the unstacking operation can be significantly speeded up compared to the conventional method. Conventionally, the crate C unstacked from the bottommost layer was rotated by 90° (rotation operation) by a conveyor with a turning function and then conveyed to the roller conveyor 5 (conveying operation), or the unstacked crate C was conveyed to the roller conveyor 5 (conveying operation) and then the roller conveyor 5 with a turning function was rotated by 90° (rotation operation). Since these two different operations were performed separately, the overall operation time was long and the speed could not be increased.

[0035] Next, the product stationary unit Q will be described. FIG. 4 is also a schematic diagram of the present system 1, showing the present system 1 from an angle different from that of FIG. 1. The product stationary unit Q has a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate C, and basically has a gripper-type crate conveyor 4, a fixed table 6, a slide table 7, and a sword-shaped elevating support table 8.

[0036] The gripper-type crate conveyor 4 is the same device as that of the unpacking unit P. Therefore, it has each mechanism of a gripping mechanism 4a, a horizontal movement mechanism 4b, and a horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, and has the same functions. However, the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C may be configured to be provided in either the unpacking unit P or the product stationary unit Q. This is because if at least one of the units is provided with the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, it is possible to align the orientations of the crates C so as to be in a stacking state.

[0037] The fixed table 6 and the slide table 7 are made of smooth plates, and products to be placed in the crate C are arranged on their upper surfaces. Also, as shown in FIG. 6, the sword-shaped elevating support table 8 is provided with a lifting mechanism 9, and has a plurality of support pins 10 and positioning pins 11 on its upper surface.

[0038] As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the plurality of support pins 10 are arranged to penetrate through the through holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate C from the bottom surface side of the crate C, and are configured to be able to move up and down within a predetermined range in the vertical direction by the action of the lifting mechanism 9. Here, the predetermined range means that, for the upper side, the upper end of the support pin 10 is at a position lower than the lower surface of the slide table 7, and for the lower side, the upper end of the support pin 10 is at a position lower than the lower surface of the crate C. Also, for the upper side of the range of this up and down movement, in order to suppress the impact when the product drops, it is preferable that the distance between the upper end of the support pin 10 and the lower surface of the slide table 7 is within 15 mm.

[0039] Incidentally, in Patent Documents 4 and 5 as well, at first glance, it may be recognized that technologies similar to the support pin 10 of the present invention are disclosed, but their specific functions and effects are completely different from those of the present invention.

[0040] The invention described in Patent Document 4 is for suppressing displacement in position caused by dropping of a product that is dropped from a transport conveyor at a high position into a crate. Also, Patent Document 4 neither describes nor suggests anything corresponding to the slide table 7 of the present invention. Therefore, depending on the invention described in Patent Document 4, products cannot be gently arranged in a crate as in the present invention, and the impact that can be given to the products when they are dropped is extremely large.

[0041] Further, the invention described in Patent Document 5 is configured to support a bottle (product) only from below with a single support pin (the present invention has a configuration in which support pins are densely arranged to stably support the product). Therefore, when arranging products in a crate, if there are gaps between adjacent products or between the inner side surface of the crate (if the products are not in close contact within the crate), the products may slide sideways or fall over, and as in the present invention, the products cannot be arranged in the crate while maintaining horizontal (in the case of the present invention, there is no problem even if the products are not in close contact within the crate. Even with a single product, this can be gently arranged in the crate). Furthermore, since the invention described in Patent Document 5 only assumes the case where the product is higher than the height of the crate, after the single support pin descends and the product is placed in the crate, it is necessary to further configure the crate itself to descend (two descending operations are required), and it is not configured such that the descent of the crate itself becomes unnecessary as in the present invention (the present invention only requires one descending operation). Incidentally, the reason for assuming only the case where the product is higher than the height of the crate in the invention described in Patent Document 5 is that it is described that the position of the through hole in the bottom surface of the crate is slightly offset from the center of the product.

[0042] From the above, it is not possible to automate and speed up the operation 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 regard, the inventions described in Patent Documents 4 and 5 are fundamentally different from the present invention.

[0043] The positioning pins 11 function as guides by passing through 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, bending, etc. may occur due to usage frequency, usage environment, deterioration, etc. Even in this case, with the positioning pins 11, the positions of the crate and the support pins 10 can be accurately positioned, and troubles such as the bottom of the crate being pushed up by the support pins 10 can be avoided. The positioning pins 11 can move up and down by a mechanism (not shown) different from the lifting mechanism 9 so that they can rise and position before the support pins. Also, the positioning pins 11 preferably have a thin upper end so that it does not become sharp for proper functioning as a guide.

[0044] Furthermore, regarding the positioning pins 11, in addition to arranging two diagonally, three of the four corners or all four corners can be arranged with four pins. In a site where only crates without warping or bending are used, etc., if a plurality of support pins 10 can pass through the through-holes provided on the bottom surface of the crate C from the bottom surface side of the crate C without problems even without the positioning pins 11, it is also possible to omit the positioning pins 11.

[0045] Hereinafter, the flow in which the product stationary unit Q gently arranges products in an empty crate C will be described in more detail. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the flow, and in the figure, 12 indicates the products (packaged food trays) arranged in the crate C.

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

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

[0048] After that, from this state, as shown in Fig. 5(D), the slide table 7 is slid (in the direction from left to right in the figure) to open the upper surface of the crate C. At this time, the stop plate 14 prevents the product 12 from being pulled by the slide table 7 and moving. As a result, the product 12 gently falls onto the plurality of support pins 10.

[0049] Then, the product 12 that has gently fallen onto the plurality of support pins 10, as shown in Fig. 5(E), the plurality of support pins 10 descend, and the upper ends of the support pins 10 move below the bottom surface of the crate C, so that the product 12 is gently arranged on the bottom surface of the crate C. Also, the slide table 7 is configured to move back onto the crate C promptly after the products 12 are arranged. In this way, the slide table 7 basically moves onto the crate C and closes the upper surface of the crate C except when the product 12 gently falls onto the plurality of support pins 10. The above is the process in which the product stationary unit Q gently arranges the product 12 in the crate C.

[0050] Since the product stationary unit Q is configured as described above, even a food tray containing fresh food can be gently arranged in the crate, and these operations can be automated and speeded up without damaging the product. Note that, in order for the product 12 to be gently arranged, as shown in FIG. 6, when passing through the crate C, the plurality of support pins 10 need to be arranged densely enough to fill the bottom surface without gaps.

[0051] In the above, the operation in which only one layer of products to be arranged is stacked has been described. However, depending on the height of the product and the effective height of the crate, if the elevator mechanism 9 is suitably moved and the support pins 10 are lowered by the height of the product after arranging the first layer and before stacking the second layer, the products in the second layer can also be gently arranged in the crate. Also, when arranging three or more layers, it is similarly possible to cope by lowering the support pins 10. Note that there is no description or suggestion in Patent Document 5 regarding the point of stacking and arranging the products in two or more layers like this. The invention described in Patent Document 5 only assumes the processing of products that are longer in the vertical direction than in the horizontal direction like bottles, and in this respect, it is fundamentally different from the present invention.

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

[0053] Note that, in the above embodiment, the product stationary unit Q has been described as using two tables, the fixed table 6 and the slide table 7, but it is also possible to replace the fixed table 6 with a product storage type conveying conveyor. Also, if the slide table 7 is configured to move to the position of the fixed table 6, it is also possible to adopt a configuration 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 having a function of stacking a predetermined number of crates containing products, and basically has a gripping-type crate conveying device 4 and a crate unloading device 15 for products.

[0055] This gripping-type crate conveying device 4 is also the same device as those of the unpacking unit P and the product stationary unit Q. Therefore, it has each mechanism of a gripping mechanism 4a, a horizontal movement mechanism 4b, and a horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, and has the same functions. However, regarding the horizontal rotation mechanism 4C, for the reasons described above, it may be configured to be provided in any unit, and thus may be omitted from the stacked unit R. Also, regarding the gripping-type crate conveying device 4, it may be made common with that of the product stationary unit Q so that the stacking unit R and the product stationary unit Q have one gripping-type crate conveying device 4.

[0056] The crate unloading device 15 for products is configured to unload the stacked crates C containing products to the outside of the system using a known loading device. Note that the stacking unit R may be omitted if the downstream equipment operation and functions do not require stacking of crates containing products.

Industrial Applicability

[0057] According to the present invention, by incorporating into the loading system a unit having a function of unpacking by rotating forward and backward 90 degrees one by one as needed from the topmost crate, a unit having a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, etc., in a fresh process center, etc., it is possible to automate and speed up operations such as arranging fresh foods such as meat in crates, and a high-speed auto-loading system and a high-speed auto-loading method using the system can be provided.

Claims

1. A high-speed auto-loading system having a crate separating unit, a product standing unit, and a stacking unit, wherein the crate separating unit is a unit having a function of separating a plurality of empty crates supplied in a stacked state, one by one, starting from the topmost crate, and has a lift device, an empty crate loading device, and a gripping type crate conveying device, the product standing unit is a unit having a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, and has a gripping type crate conveying device, a sliding table, and a sword-shaped elevating support table, the stacking unit is a unit having a function of stacking a predetermined number of crates containing products, and has a gripping type crate conveying device and a product-containing crate unloading device, the lift device has 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 conveying device has a gripping mechanism having a function of gripping a crate by a gripping portion, a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in a horizontal direction, and a horizontal rotation mechanism for conveying the crate in a horizontal direction and simultaneously rotating it horizontally, the sword-shaped elevating support table is provided with a lifting mechanism and has a plurality of support pins on its upper surface, and the plurality of support pins are arranged so as to penetrate through through-holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom surface side of the crate, and due to the action of the lifting mechanism, the upper ends of the plurality of support pins can move up and down within an arbitrary range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate, 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 when the sliding table moves horizontally above the crate, the products arranged on its upper surface are configured to fall onto the plurality of support pins of the elevating support table, and the product-containing crate unloading device is configured to unload the stacked product-containing crates to the outside of the system. A high-speed auto-loading system characterized by the above.

2. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The product-containing crate unloading device is also characterized by including the lift device. The high-speed auto-loading system according to claim 1.

3. A product stationary unit applied to a part of a high-speed auto-loading system, having a function of gently arranging products in an empty crate, comprising: a gripping-type crate conveying device, a sliding table, and a pincushion-shaped elevating support table; wherein: the gripping-type crate conveying device has a gripping mechanism for gripping a crate by a gripping part, a horizontal movement mechanism for moving the gripping mechanism in the horizontal direction, and a horizontal rotation mechanism for conveying the crate in the horizontal direction and simultaneously rotating it horizontally; the pincushion-shaped elevating support table is provided with a lifting mechanism and has a plurality of support pins on its upper surface, and the plurality of support pins are arranged to penetrate through through-holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate from the bottom surface side of the crate, and due to the action of the lifting mechanism, the upper ends of the plurality of support pins can move up and down within an arbitrary range between a position above the crate and a position below the crate; 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 when the sliding table moves horizontally above the crate, the products arranged on its upper surface are configured to fall onto the plurality of support pins of the elevating support table. A product stationary unit characterized by the above.

4. A method of gently arranging products in a crate using the product stationary unit according to claim 3, comprising the steps of: making the plurality of support pins penetrate through through-holes provided in the bottom surface of the crate and placing their upper ends at positions lower than the height of the lower surface of the sliding table; closing the upper surface of the crate with the sliding table; arranging products on the upper surface of the sliding table; while preventing the products from being pulled by the sliding table 7 and moving, sliding the sliding table to open the upper surface of the crate again and gently dropping the products onto the plurality of support pins; lowering the plurality of support pins so that their upper ends are below the bottom surface of the crate. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Characterized by having a step of arranging products on the bottom surface of the crate by moving thereto A method of gently arranging products in a crate to be like this.

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