Steel material conveying equipment

Abstract

To provide a steel material carrying device capable of accurately confirming whether or not a steel material exists in a device by using a reflection type photoelectric sensor.SOLUTION: A steel material carrying device 1 comprises: a plurality of skid tables 4 for moving a steel material W from the side of an upstream side roller conveyor 2 toward the side of a downstream side roller conveyor 3; an upstream side transfer part 5 for transferring the steel material W on the upstream side roller conveyor 2 to the skid tables 4; a downstream side transfer part 6 for transferring the steel material W on the skid tables 4 to the downstream side roller conveyor 3; a reflection type photoelectric sensor 17 for detecting the steel material W on the skid tables 4; and a control part 8. The control part 8 comprises an abnormality determination part 44 which, when a value obtained by subtracting the number of flip-up steel materials based on the transfer operation of the downstream side transfer part 6 from the number of put-out steel materials based on the transfer operation of the upstream side transfer part 5 is a value larger than zero and further a signal from the reflection type photoelectric sensor 17 indicates no steel material, determines that there is erroneous detection abnormality in the reflection type photoelectric sensor 17.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a steel material conveying device that conveys steel materials to the next process. [Background Art]

[0002] In the manufacturing process of steel materials such as steel pipes and steel bars, processing in each step is usually performed in lot units. The steel materials that have completed processing in the previous step are conveyed to the next step using a steel material conveying device including a roller conveyor and a skid table (see, for example, Patent Document 1 below).

[0003] In such a steel material conveying device, in order to prevent mixing with the next lot of material, it is necessary to check whether any steel material remains in the device after conveying the steel material of the target lot is completed. As means for checking whether steel material remains, for example, in addition to visual confirmation by an operator, it is conceivable to arrange a sensor in an area where residual steel material is expected to detect the steel material. In particular, reflective photoelectric sensors have a wider detection range than proximity sensors, and unlike transmissive photoelectric sensors, there is no need to separately arrange a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit, and they are useful in that they offer a high degree of freedom in arrangement while avoiding interference with the conveyed steel material.

[0004] However, in steel material conveying devices, collisions between steel materials constantly occur during conveying. For this reason, the impact at the time of collision may cause displacement of the optical axis of the reflective photoelectric sensor, and there has been a risk of false detection where the signal from the sensor indicates that no steel material is present despite the presence of steel material. [Prior Art Documents] [Patent Documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-110120 [Summary of the Invention] [Problem to be Solved by the Invention]

[0006] Against the background described above, the present invention aims to provide a steel material conveying device that can accurately confirm whether or not steel material is present inside the device using a reflective photoelectric sensor. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] Thus, the steel material conveying device in the first aspect of this invention is defined as follows: An upstream roller conveyor that transports steel materials from the previous process, A downstream roller conveyor that transports the steel material to the next process, A plurality of skid tables are arranged between these roller conveyors to move the steel material from the upstream roller conveyor side toward the downstream roller conveyor side, An upstream transfer unit that transfers the steel material on the upstream roller conveyor to the skid table, A downstream transfer unit that transfers the steel material on the skid table to the downstream roller conveyor, A reflective photoelectric sensor for detecting the steel material on the skid table, A control unit that manages operations related to steel material transport, Equipped with, The control unit includes an abnormality determination unit that determines that there is a false detection abnormality in the reflective photoelectric sensor when the value obtained by subtracting the number of steel materials jumped up based on the transfer operation of the downstream transfer unit from the number of steel materials dispensed based on the transfer operation of the upstream transfer unit is greater than zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor indicates no steel materials.

[0008] According to the first phase of the steel material conveying device defined in this way, by using a reflective photoelectric sensor to detect steel materials and a control unit to manage the number of steel materials dispensed and the number of steel materials that bounce up, false detections by the reflective photoelectric sensor can be quickly detected, and it is possible to accurately confirm whether or not steel materials remain in the steel material conveying device using the reflective photoelectric sensor.

[0009] The second aspect of this invention is defined as follows: In the first phase, in the specified steel material conveying device, the control unit is: An information acquisition unit that acquires lot information regarding steel materials processed in the previous process, A transport completion determination unit determines that the transport of the target lot has ended when the difference between the number of steel materials acquired by the information acquisition unit and the number of steel materials that have been lifted is zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor indicates that there are no steel materials. It also has the following features.

[0010] According to the steel material conveying device in the second phase as defined in this way, it is possible to confirm that the steel materials constituting the lot to be conveyed, which have been sent from the previous process, have been successfully conveyed to the next process without being left behind in the device. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0011] [Figure 1] This is a plan view showing the schematic overall configuration of a steel material conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] Figure 1 is a view of the steel material conveying device taken along the line II-II. [Figure 3] This is a block diagram of the control system for the steel material conveying device. [Figure 4] This is a diagram illustrating the operation of the steel material conveying device. [Figure 5] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the steel material conveying device. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0012] Next, a steel material conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. Figure 1 is a plan view showing the schematic overall configuration of a steel material conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, W is a steel bar with a circular cross-section, and is indicated by a dashed line. 1 is a steel material conveying device that conveys the steel bar W to the next process. The steel material conveying device 1 comprises an upstream roller conveyor 2, a downstream roller conveyor 3, a plurality of skid tables 4, an upstream transfer unit 5, a downstream transfer unit 6, and a control unit 8 (see Figure 3).

[0013] The upstream roller conveyor 2 is a conveyor that conveys a steel material W sent out from a previous step. The upstream roller conveyor 2 is configured to include a plurality of rollers 10 arranged in a single row, and a drive motor 11 (see Fig. 3) that rotationally drives these rollers 10, and conveys long steel bars W one by one in a manner that the longitudinal direction of the steel bar W is set as the conveying direction. The upstream roller conveyor 2 is provided with a proximity sensor 12 for confirming that the steel bar W has been conveyed to a predetermined position. Although this example illustrates an arrangement where one proximity sensor 12 is disposed, the number and disposition positions of the proximity sensors 12 can be appropriately changed.

[0014] The downstream roller conveyor 3 is a conveyor that conveys the steel bar W toward a next step. Similar to the upstream roller conveyor 2, the downstream roller conveyor 3 is configured to include a plurality of rollers 10 arranged in a single row, and a drive motor 13 (see Fig. 3) that rotationally drives these rollers 10, and conveys long steel bars W one by one in a manner that the longitudinal direction of the steel bar W is set as the conveying direction. The downstream roller conveyor 3 is also provided with a proximity sensor 14 for confirming that the steel bar W has been transferred onto the downstream roller conveyor 3 by a downstream transfer section 6 to be described later. In the present example, the upstream roller conveyor 2 and the downstream roller conveyor 3 are disposed spaced apart from each other in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the steel bar W by these roller conveyors.

[0015] Between the upstream roller conveyor 2 and the downstream roller conveyor 3, a skid table 4 that moves the steel bar W from the upstream roller conveyor 2 side toward the downstream roller conveyor 3 side is disposed. As shown in Fig. 1, a plurality of (four in this example) skid tables 4 are provided at intervals, and each is disposed in a manner extending in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the steel bar W on the roller conveyors 2 and 3. In the area where the plurality of skid tables 4 are arranged, a plurality of steel bars W can be held as indicated by the two-dot chain line in Fig. 1.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 2, the skid table 4 has an upper surface 4a for supporting a steel bar W, which is formed as an inclined surface descending to the lower right in the drawing from the upstream roller conveyor 2 side toward the downstream roller conveyor 3 side. The steel W positioned at the upper end of the inclined surface 4a (on the upstream roller conveyor 2 side) is movable (rollable) toward the lower end (on the downstream roller conveyor 3 side) along the inclination of the inclined surface 4a.

[0017] A proximity sensor 15 for detecting a steel bar W transferred from the upstream roller conveyor 2 to the skid table 4 by an upstream transfer unit 5 described later is provided at the upper end of the skid table 4. Further, a proximity sensor 16 for detecting a steel bar W to be transferred to the downstream roller conveyor 3 by a transfer operation of a downstream transfer unit 6 described later is provided at the lower end of the skid table 4.

[0018] Further, a reflective photoelectric sensor 17 for detecting a steel bar W on the skid table 4 is provided at a position facing the lower end of the skid table 4 from the downstream roller conveyor 3 side. The reflective photoelectric sensor 17 has a light projecting unit and a light receiving unit integrated together, projects inspection light toward an area where the steel bar W is held in a direction substantially parallel to the inclined surface 4a and orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the steel bar W, and detects the steel bar W present in the area by receiving the reflected light of the inspection light.

[0019] The upstream transfer unit 5 transfers the steel bar W on the upstream roller conveyor 2 to the skid table 4. As shown in FIG. 1, the upstream transfer unit 5 includes a plurality of lever members 19 disposed between the respective rollers 10, a shaft body 20 integrally connected to the plurality of lever members 19 and rotating around an axis to pivot the lever members 19, and a drive motor 21 (see FIG. 3) that rotates the shaft body 20 by a predetermined angle.

[0020] As shown in Figure 2, the lever member 19 is positioned below the steel bar W on the upstream roller conveyor 2. In the upstream transfer section 5, the lever member 19 rotates counterclockwise in Figure 2 in conjunction with the movement of the shaft 20, lifting the steel bar W on the upstream roller conveyor 2 to the height indicated by W1 in the figure. The steel bar W then rolls along the inclination of the upper surface of the lever member 19 and moves to the skid table 4.

[0021] The downstream transfer unit 6 transfers the steel bars W on the skid table 4 to the downstream roller conveyor 3. The downstream transfer unit 6 includes a steel material position defining member 23 that defines the position of the leading steel bar W at the lower end of the skid table 4, a plurality of lever members 27 arranged at intervals along the longitudinal direction of the steel bar W, a shaft 28 that rotates the plurality of lever members 27, and a drive motor 29 (see Figure 3) that rotates the shaft 28 by a predetermined angle.

[0022] As shown in Figure 2, the steel material positioning member 23 protrudes above the skid table 4 at the lower end of the skid table 4 (on the downstream roller conveyor 3 side) and includes a stopper portion 24 that contacts the leading steel bar W, followed by a steel material guide portion 25. The upper surface of the steel material guide portion 25 is an inclined surface that slopes downward and to the right in the figure toward the downstream roller conveyor 3. In the downstream transfer section 6, the lever member 27 rotates in conjunction with the movement of the shaft 28, lifting the leading steel bar W of the skid table 4 to the height of the upper surface 25a of the steel material guide portion 25 (the height shown as W2 in Figure 2). After that, the steel bar W rolls along the inclination of the upper surface 25a of the steel material guide portion 25 and moves toward the downstream roller conveyor 3.

[0023] Figure 3 is a block diagram of the control system of the steel material conveying device 1. The control unit 8, which manages operations related to steel material conveying, is connected to a host computer 31, proximity sensors 12, 14, 15, 16, a reflective photoelectric sensor 17, drive motors 11, 13, 21, 29, and a display monitor 32. The control unit 8 can be configured using, for example, an information processing device equipped with a CPU, RAM, HDD, and various interfaces, or dedicated hardware, and functions as an information acquisition unit 41, a conveyor control unit 42, a transfer operation control unit 43, an abnormality determination unit 44, and a conveying completion determination unit 45.

[0024] The information acquisition unit 41 acquires information about the next lot to be sent from the previous process from the database of the host computer 31, which manages the steel manufacturing process. Specifically, it acquires information such as the type of steel, size, and quantity of the lot in question. The control unit 8 starts the transport operation based on the acquired lot information.

[0025] The conveyor control unit 42 controls the drive motor 11 that drives the upstream roller conveyor 2, transporting the steel bars W of the target lot one by one to a predetermined position. The stopping position of the steel bars W is determined based on the detection signal from the proximity sensor 12. The conveyor control unit 42 also controls the drive motor 13 that drives the downstream roller conveyor 3, transporting the steel bars W one by one toward the next process. When the steel bars W that have been transferred onto the downstream roller conveyor 3 are detected by the proximity sensor 14, the drive motor 13 is activated, and the steel bars W are transported to the next process.

[0026] The transfer operation control unit 43 drives the drive motor 21 to rotate the lever member 19 of the upstream transfer unit 5, thereby performing the operation of transferring the steel bars W on the upstream roller conveyor 2 to the skid table 4. Furthermore, it counts the number of steel materials discharged from the previous process based on the transfer operation (rotation of the lever member 19) at the upstream transfer unit 5 after the transport of the target lot of steel bars has started. In addition to the transfer operation at the upstream transfer unit 5, steel material detection by the proximity sensor 15 of the skid table 4 may also be a condition for counting the number of discharged steel materials.

[0027] Furthermore, the transfer operation control unit 43 drives the drive motor 29 to rotate the lever member 27 of the downstream transfer unit 6, thereby performing the operation of transferring the steel bars W on the skid table 4 to the downstream roller conveyor 3. In addition, the number of steel bars that have been thrown onto the downstream roller conveyor 3 is counted based on the transfer operation (rotation of the lever member 27) at the downstream transfer unit 6 after the transport of the target lot of steel bars has started. When counting the number of thrown steel bars, the detection of steel bars by the proximity sensor 14 of the downstream roller conveyor 3 may also be a condition in addition to the transfer operation at the downstream transfer unit 6.

[0028] The abnormality detection unit 44 calculates a value obtained by subtracting the number of steel bars that have been lifted from the number of steel bars dispensed as counted by the transfer operation control unit 43. If the resulting value is greater than zero (i.e., steel bars W are present on the skid table 4), and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 indicates that there are no steel bars W, the unit determines that there is a false detection abnormality in the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 and outputs a false detection abnormality detection signal to the display monitor 32 or the like.

[0029] The transport completion determination unit 45 determines that the transport of the target lot is complete when the difference between the number of steel materials acquired by the information acquisition unit 41 and the number of steel materials jumped up counted by the transfer operation control unit 43 is zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 indicates that there are no steel materials, and outputs a transport completion signal to the host computer 31 or the like.

[0030] Next, the steel material transport operation in the steel material transport device 1 will be described. When a new batch of steel is delivered from the previous process, the steel bars W on the upstream roller conveyor 2 are sequentially transferred to the skid table 4 by the upstream transfer unit 5, as shown in Figure 4. At that time, the number of steel materials discharged from the previous process is counted based on the transfer operation at the upstream transfer unit 5. The steel bars W dispensed onto the skid table 4 move along the inclined surface 4a towards their lower ends (the side of the downstream roller conveyor 3), and the leading end of the steel bar W comes into contact with the stopper portion 24, thus defining its position.

[0031] As shown in Figure 5, the leading steel bar W that has come into contact with the stopper section 24 is sequentially transferred to the downstream roller conveyor 3 by the downstream transfer section 6, and the steel bars W transferred to the downstream roller conveyor 3 are transported to the next process. At that time, the number of steel materials that have been lifted based on the transfer operation at the downstream transfer section 6 is counted.

[0032] While the steel bars W are being transported, the control unit 8 obtains the value obtained by subtracting the number of steel bars that have been thrown up from the number of steel bars dispensed, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17. If the subtracted value is greater than zero (i.e., there are steel bars W on the skid table 4), and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 indicates that there are no steel bars W, the control unit 8 determines that there is a false detection error in the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 and outputs a false detection error detection signal.

[0033] After the operation to transport the steel bars W sent from the previous process is completed, the control unit 8 determines that the transport of the target lot is complete when the difference between the number of steel bars acquired by the information acquisition unit 41 and the number of steel bars jumped up counted by the transfer operation control unit 43 is zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 indicates that there are no steel bars, and outputs a transport completion signal. This completes the series of operations related to the transport of steel bars for the target lot.

[0034] As described above, with the steel material conveying device 1 of this embodiment, by using the steel material detection by the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 in combination with the management of the number of steel materials dispensed and the number of steel materials jumped up by the control unit 8, false detections by the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 can be quickly detected, and it is possible to confirm with high accuracy whether or not steel materials are present in the steel material conveying device using the reflective photoelectric sensor 17.

[0035] The steel material transport device 1 of this embodiment further includes an information acquisition unit 41 that acquires lot information relating to steel materials processed in the previous process, and a transport completion determination unit 45 that determines that the transport of the target lot has ended when the difference between the number of steel materials acquired by the information acquisition unit 41 and the number of jumping steel materials counted by the control unit 8 is zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor 17 indicates that there are no steel materials. This makes it possible to confirm that the steel materials constituting the target lot sent from the previous process have been transported to the next process without being left behind in the device.

[0036] Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, this is merely an example. For example, the number and installation locations of proximity sensors and reflective photoelectric sensors used for detecting steel materials can be changed as needed, and the present invention can be configured in various modified forms without departing from its spirit. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0037] 1. Steel material conveying device 2 Upstream roller conveyor 3 Downstream roller conveyor 4 Skid Tables 5 Upstream transfer section 6 Downstream transfer section 8 Control Unit 17. Reflective photoelectric sensor 41 Information Acquisition Department 44 Abnormality determination section 45 Transport completion determination unit W Steel bar (steel material)

Claims

1. An upstream roller conveyor that transports steel materials from the previous process, A downstream roller conveyor that transports the steel material to the next process, A plurality of skid tables are arranged between these roller conveyors to move the steel material from the upstream roller conveyor side toward the downstream roller conveyor side, An upstream transfer unit that transfers the steel material on the upstream roller conveyor to the skid table, A downstream transfer unit that transfers the steel material on the skid table to the downstream roller conveyor, A reflective photoelectric sensor for detecting the steel material on the skid table, A control unit that manages operations related to steel material transport, Equipped with, The steel material transport device includes an abnormality determination unit that determines that there is a false detection abnormality in the reflective photoelectric sensor when the value obtained by subtracting the number of steel materials jumped up based on the transfer operation of the downstream transfer unit from the number of steel materials dispensed based on the transfer operation of the upstream transfer unit is greater than zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor indicates no steel materials.

2. The control unit, An information acquisition unit that acquires lot information regarding steel materials processed in the previous process, A transport completion determination unit determines that the transport of the target lot has ended when the difference between the number of steel materials acquired by the information acquisition unit and the number of steel materials that have been lifted is zero, and the signal from the reflective photoelectric sensor indicates that there are no steel materials. The steel material conveying device according to claim 1, further comprising the following:

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