JP2012184094A - Conveyor equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide conveyor equipment, that can keep articles conveying capability high, and secure an spacing at which sorting can be performed.SOLUTION: In the conveyor equipment 10, a conveyor for carrying in 14, a conveyor for acceleration 16, and a conveyor for carrying out 18 are arranged along a conveyance path for articles 12. The conveyor equipment 10 includes: a measuring device 20 for measuring the size of each of the articles 12 and the spacing between the articles 12; a detecting device 22 for detecting the position of the articles 12 on the conveyor for acceleration 16; and a controller for controlling the conveyor for acceleration 16.

Description

  The present invention relates to a conveyor facility that can adjust an interval between articles during conveyance of the article.

  Conventionally, various conveyor facilities have been developed and disclosed (Patent Document 1 below). The conveyor equipment is configured to sort the articles by joining or branching the conveyance paths of the articles.

  For example, in the conveyor facility 100 of FIG. 10, it is assumed that two conveyance paths merge into one, perform side alignment of articles, and branch to a desired path. Therefore, in addition to the normal conveyors 24, 28a, and 28b that convey articles linearly, a merging conveyor 26, a width adjusting conveyor 30, and a sorting conveyor 38 are used.

  The usual conveyors 24, 28a, 28b for conveying the articles 12 are belt conveyors, roller conveyors, and the like. A motor or the like is provided as a driving source for the belt and rollers.

  The merge conveyor 26 conveys the article 12 while moving the article 12 from the side of the conveyance path to the center. After the article 12 reaches the center, the article 12 is transferred to a normal conveyor 28a. The article 12 that has been transported from the two transport paths can be transported through the single transport path.

  The width-conveying conveyor 30 conveys the article 12 while moving the article 12 in an oblique direction with respect to the conveying direction, and aligns the position of one surface of the article 12 with the frame 36. Since the position of one surface of the article 12 is constant, the width of the article 12 can be obtained by detecting the position of the other surface of the article 12.

  The sorting conveyor 38 has a plurality of slats 40 arranged in the transport direction and circulates in the transport direction. The article 12 placed on the slat 40 also moves in the transport direction together with the slat 40. A shoe 46 is disposed at one end of the slat 40, and the shoe 46 moves along the slat 40 when it becomes a point for sorting the articles 12. The shoe 46 pushes the article 12 sideways, the article 12 moves in an oblique direction with respect to the transport direction, and is placed on the branch destination conveyor.

  Since the shoes 46 move along the slats 40, the articles in the sorting conveyor 38 according to the angle of the conveying direction and the branch direction of the articles 12, the size of the articles 12, etc. so that the articles 12 are not sandwiched by the shoes 46. The minimum distance between them is determined. When the interval between the articles 12 is narrower than the minimum interval, the articles 12 cannot be sorted. If it cannot be sorted, it is conveyed upstream of the conveyor facility 100 by a return conveyor and sorted again. If re-sorting is performed, sorting efficiency deteriorates. Therefore, a minimum interval that can be sorted by the sorting conveyor 38 is secured so that re-sorting is not performed.

  However, the article 12 may slide due to the transfer of the article 12 between the conveyors 24, 26, 28 a, 28 b, 30, and 38. In the merging conveyor 26 and the width adjusting conveyor 30, the article 12 may slide because the article 12 is conveyed in an oblique direction. Due to the sliding of the article 12, the interval between the articles is narrowed. When the articles 12 are conveyed at the minimum interval of the sorting conveyor 38 upstream of the conveyor facility 100, if the intervals of the articles 12 are narrowed, the sorting becomes impossible. When the article 12 is transported at a wide interval in consideration of this narrowing, the transport capability of the entire conveyor facility is lowered.

  Cited Document 1 discloses an induction conveyor that adjusts the distance between the front and rear articles. The induction conveyor adjusts the interval of the articles by accelerating and decelerating the rear articles after the front articles are transferred to the sorting conveyor. However, acceleration and deceleration of the article may cause the article to slip and cause the article interval to shift. If an article is accelerated and decelerated with a single induction conveyor, the control becomes difficult. Therefore, there is a possibility that the interval between the articles needs to be increased. There is a possibility that the conveying ability of the article may be lowered.

JP 2000-136021 A

  An object of this invention is to provide the conveyor equipment which can ensure the space | interval which can keep the conveyance capability of articles | goods high and can sort.

  The conveyor facility of the present invention includes a carry-in conveyor for carrying articles, a carry-out conveyor for carrying articles at a higher speed than the carry-in conveyor, and a carry-in conveyor and a carry-out conveyor on the downstream side of the carry-in conveyor. And a plurality of acceleration conveyors provided. These conveyors are arranged along the conveying direction. In addition, the conveyor facility includes a measuring device that measures the size and interval of an article conveyed on the carry-in conveyor, and a detection device that detects the position of the article on the acceleration conveyor. Furthermore, the conveyor equipment includes a control device that determines an acceleration conveyor for acceleration based on the size and interval of the articles, and controls acceleration and deceleration of the acceleration conveyor according to the position of the articles detected by the detection device. .

  Articles are conveyed from the carry-in conveyor to the carry-out conveyor. The article is accelerated by an accelerating conveyor provided in the middle of the conveyance to increase the conveyance speed of the article. In order to accelerate, the size and interval of the article and the position of the article are detected.

  When the center of gravity of the article is placed on the determined acceleration conveyor, the control device accelerates the determined acceleration conveyor to the speed of the carry-out conveyor, and is downstream of the determined acceleration conveyor. All the accelerating conveyors on the side accelerate to the speed of the unloading conveyor before the article is placed, and when the rear end or center of gravity of the article passes through the accelerating conveyor, the passing accelerating conveyor is loaded. Reduce to the conveyor speed.

  When the front end of the article is placed on the downstream acceleration conveyor while the acceleration conveyor downstream of the determined acceleration conveyor is accelerating, the control device accelerates the acceleration of the downstream acceleration conveyor. To increase the speed of the carry-out conveyor.

  The control device completes the deceleration of the accelerating conveyor until the center of gravity of a new article is placed.

  In the present invention, the interval between articles can be adjusted by an acceleration conveyor. Even if the interval between articles is narrow, it can be set to an interval that can be sorted by the sorting conveyor. Since the interval between the articles can be narrower on the upstream side than the accelerating conveyor, the conveyance capability of the articles in the entire conveyor facility can be increased.

  Further, the article is accelerated only once, and after the acceleration, the conveyance speed is maintained. There is no acceleration and deceleration multiple times. Misalignment of articles is unlikely to occur, and articles are easily sorted.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the conveyor installation of this invention. It is a figure which shows the positional relationship of two articles | goods. It is a figure which shows an example of the upstream of a conveyor installation, and a downstream. It is a figure which shows the structure of the conveyor for a classification. It is a figure which shows the structure of a branch. It is a graph which shows the change of the conveyance speed of articles | goods. It is a figure which shows the timing which starts acceleration, It is a figure which does not accelerate in (a), accelerates in (b), and decelerates in (c). It is a figure which shows the timing which starts acceleration at high speed. It is a figure which shows the timing which accelerates two acceleration conveyors simultaneously. It is a figure which shows the structure of the conventional conveyor installation.

  The conveyor equipment of this invention is demonstrated using drawing. The article to be conveyed will be described as a rectangular parallelepiped or a cube. The side of the article coincides with the transport direction. The article has a downstream side in the transport direction as a front end and an upstream side in the transport direction as a rear end.

  In the conveyor facility 10 of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, a carry-in conveyor 14, an acceleration conveyor 16, and a carry-out conveyor 18 are arranged along the conveyance path of the articles 12. The conveyor facility 10 includes a measuring device 20 that measures the size and interval of the article 12, a detection device 22 that detects the position of the article 12 on the acceleration conveyor 16, and a control device that controls the acceleration conveyor 16. In this description, it is assumed that two articles 12A and 12B are being conveyed on the carry-in conveyor (FIG. 2). If the preceding article is 12A and the rear article is 12B, and the articles 12A and 12B are not particularly distinguished, the reference numeral 12 is used.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the upstream of the carry-in conveyor 14 has, for example, a configuration in which two conveyance paths become one and the position of one side surface of the article 12 is aligned. Upstream of the carry-in conveyor 14 is a conveyor 24 that conveys the articles 12 in each of the two conveyance paths, a merge conveyor 26 that merges the conveyance paths, a conveyor 28 downstream of the merge conveyor 26, and a position on one side of the articles 12. The width-adjusting conveyor 30 is provided.

  The conveyors 24 and 28 for transporting the articles 12 are belt conveyors, roller conveyors, and the like. A motor or the like is provided as a driving source for the belt and rollers. The conveyors 24 and 28 convey articles linearly along the conveyance path.

  The merge conveyor 26 conveys the article 12 in the conveyance direction while moving the article 12 from the side to the center of the conveyance path. A plurality of rollers 32 inclined with respect to the transport direction are arranged in two rows. The rollers 32 are inclined with respect to the center line of the transport path. The article 12 is conveyed along the inclination direction of the roller 32. The merging conveyor 26 passes the articles 12 to a normal conveyor 28 after reaching the center in the width direction.

  The width-conveying conveyor 30 conveys the article 12 while moving it to one side of the conveyance path. A plurality of rollers 34 inclined with respect to the transport direction and a frame 36 provided on one side of the transport path are provided. The article 12 moves to one side and is conveyed by the frame 36 without falling. One side of the article 12 is aligned by the frame 36. Since the position of one surface of the article 12 is determined, the width of the article 12 can be obtained by measuring the position of the other surface of the article 12 by the measuring device 20.

  The various conveyors 24, 26, 28, and 30 are examples. Even if the order and combination of the conveyors 24, 26, 28, and 30 are changed, the present invention can be used as long as it is a known configuration for carrying, merging, and shifting the article 12 on the upstream side of the carry-in conveyor 14. Applicable to.

  Further, a sorting conveyor 38 is provided downstream of the carry-out conveyor 18 (FIG. 4). The sorting conveyor 38 branches from a single conveyance path to a plurality of conveyance paths. The sorting conveyor 38 has a rod-like slat 40 attached to an endless chain stretched along the conveyance path.

  A rotation drive device and a driven rotation device are provided at the upstream end and the downstream end of the conveyance path, respectively, and an endless chain is engaged with the rotation drive device and the driven rotation device. The rotary drive device includes a power source such as a motor, and rotates the endless chain around the conveyance path. The driven rotation device rotates in accordance with the movement of the endless chain. The slat 40 circulates in the conveyance path by the circulation of the endless chain. The article 12 is placed and conveyed across the plurality of slats 40.

  A non-contact switch 42 for detecting the article 12 is provided in the upstream portion of the sorting conveyor 38. In addition, a pulse encoder that generates a pulse in accordance with the rotational speed of the driven rotating device is provided. The moving distance of the article 12 per pulse is known at the time of design. By counting the number of pulses, the moving distance of the article 12 from the non-contact switch 42 can be obtained, and the position of the article 12 can be obtained. In addition to counting the number of pulses, the position of the article 12 may be obtained by attaching detected members to the slats 40 and detecting and counting them in contact or non-contact. When the article 12 reaches the position where it branches, the article is guided to the branching conveyor 44.

  A shoe 46 is disposed at one end of the slat 40 to guide the article 12 to the branching conveyor 44. The shoe 46 can move along the slat 40. A straight rail 48 for moving the shoe 46 straight, a diagonal rail 50 for moving the shoe 46 in the diagonal direction, and a branching device 52 for selecting the rails 48, 50 are provided (FIG. 5). Rollers guided by the rails 48 and 50 are provided below the shoe 46 (on the side opposite to the article placement side of the slat 40). The branching device 52 guides the roller to one of the rails 48 and 50 by mechanical or magnetic force. When the roller is guided in the oblique direction, the shoe 46 moves along the slat 40 and the shoe 46 laterally pushes the article 12.

  A branching conveyor 44 is provided at a point where the article 12 is laterally pushed. There are a plurality of branching conveyors 44, and a branching device 52 and rails 48 and 50 are provided for each branching conveyor 44. The branching conveyor 44 is selected according to the conveyance destination of the article 12. The branching conveyor 44 is a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor. Instead of the branching conveyor 44, a chute that slides down the article 12 by an inclination may be used.

  The carry-in conveyor 14 and the carry-out conveyor 18 in the present invention are ordinary conveyors that convey the articles 12 linearly. The carry-in conveyor 14 and the carry-out conveyor 18 are a belt conveyor, a roller conveyor, or the like. The carry-out conveyor 18 is faster in conveying the articles 12 than the carry-in conveyor 14. The carry-out conveyor 18 has the same conveying speed of the articles 12 as the sorting conveyor 38.

  A pulse encoder is attached to the carry-in conveyor 14. For example, in the case of a belt conveyor, a rotation driving device that transmits the power of a motor to the belt and a driven rotation device that rotates while supporting the belt according to the movement of the belt are provided. A pulse encoder is attached to the rotating shaft of the driven rotating device. The pulse encoder generates a pulse according to the rotation speed. The moving distance of the article 12 per pulse is known at the time of design. The position of the measuring device 20 is known at the time of design, and the moving distance of the article 12 is obtained from the number of pulses after the article 12 is detected by the measuring apparatus 20. It can be determined which article 12 is placed on which acceleration conveyor 16. The pulse generated by the pulse encoder is sent to the control device. This is because the position of the article 12 is obtained by counting the number of pulses by the control device.

  The measuring device 20 measures the size of the article 12 conveyed by the carry-in conveyor 14 and the interval between the articles. The measuring device 20 is a length measurement sensor 54 and a width measurement sensor 56.

  The length measuring sensor 54 has a light emitting element 58 and a light receiving element 60 arranged on both sides of the carry-in conveyor 14. The light emitting element 58 is a laser diode or a light emitting diode. The light receiving element 60 is a photodiode or a phototransistor. The light of the light emitting element 58 is set to be orthogonal to the carry-in conveyor 14. When the article 12 passes, the light is blocked. Since the conveyance speed of the article 12 is set in advance, the length in the conveyance direction of the article 12 is obtained from the light shielding time. Further, the interval between the articles is obtained from the light receiving time.

  The width measuring sensor 56 also includes a light emitting element and a light receiving element similar to the length measuring sensor 54. The light emitting element and the light receiving element are arranged on the side in the transport direction. It is arranged on the side opposite to the side where the frame 36 of the width adjusting conveyor 30 is located. One side of the article 12 is aligned by the width adjusting conveyor 30. When the other surface of the article 12 is irradiated with light, the reflected light changes according to the position of the other surface of the article 12, and therefore the distance to the other surface is obtained according to the reflected light. The position of the width measuring sensor 56 and the position of the frame 36 of the width adjusting conveyor 30 are known at the time of design. The distance WD from the width measurement sensor 56 to one surface of the article 12 is constant (FIG. 2). Further, since the distance from the width measurement sensor 56 to the other surface of the article 12 is obtained by the change in the received light, the widths WA and WB of the article 12 can be obtained from the difference between these distances.

  Instead of using light reflection, light may be emitted obliquely with respect to the transport direction, and the width of the article 12 may be obtained by blocking the light. The width of the article 12 is obtained from the angle of light with respect to the carrying direction, the carrying speed of the article 12 and the light shielding time. Alternatively, the article 12 may be photographed with a digital camera, and the size of the article 12 and the interval between the articles may be obtained by image processing.

  Signals received by the light receiving element 58 of the length measuring sensor 54 and the light receiving element of the width measuring sensor 56 are transmitted to the control device. This is because the control device performs calculations described later.

  The control device to be described later counts the number of pulses generated by the pulse encoder from the timing when the length measuring sensor 54 or the width measuring sensor 56 detects the article 12. The timing to start counting is when the front end or the rear end of the article 12 is detected.

  The acceleration conveyor 16 is disposed between the carry-in conveyor 14 and the carry-out conveyor 18. The acceleration conveyor 16 is a belt conveyor. A plurality of acceleration conveyors 16 are arranged along the transport direction. The structure of each acceleration conveyor 16 is the same, for example, the length of a conveyance direction is 300 mm. Although six acceleration conveyors 16 are provided in FIG. 1, the number of acceleration conveyors 16 may be appropriately changed according to the conveyance speed of the articles 16 on the sorting conveyor 38.

  The conveying speed of the article 12 is accelerated from the conveying speed of the loading conveyor 14 to the conveying speed of the unloading conveyor 18 by the acceleration conveyor 16. The control device accelerates all the acceleration conveyors 16 downstream from any one of the acceleration conveyors 16 and decelerates from the acceleration conveyor 16 through which the article 12 has passed. The acceleration and deceleration will be described later.

  The detection device 22 includes a light emitting element 62 and a light receiving element 64 as in the measurement apparatus 20. The detection device 22 detects the article 12 between the acceleration conveyors 16, between the carry-in conveyor 14 and the acceleration conveyor 16, and between the acceleration conveyor 16 and the carry-out conveyor 18. The detection device 22 detects the presence or absence of the article 12 by detecting light blocking or reflection by the article 12. Since the size of the article 12 is determined by the measuring device 20 and the conveyance speed of the acceleration conveyor 16 is set in advance, the conveyance of the article 12 passing through the time when the article 12 is detected by the detection device 22 is performed. A position in the direction is determined. In order to perform control, the front end, center (center of gravity), and rear end of the article 12 can be detected.

  A device 66 for measuring the interval between the articles 12 with respect to the articles 12 conveyed by the carry-out conveyor 18 is provided. This is because the acceleration conveyor 16 confirms that the predetermined article interval has been reached and determines whether or not the sorting conveyor 38 can perform sorting. Similar to the measuring apparatus 20, the presence or absence of the article 12 is detected by light shielding or reflection of light by the light emitting element 68 and the light receiving element 70, and the article interval is obtained.

  When the interval for sorting the articles 12 is not reached, the article 12A in front advances the sorting conveyor 38 straight and does not sort. Since the rear article 12B does not sandwich the front article 12A even if the shoe 46 of the sorting conveyor 38 is moved, the rear article 12B performs sorting. A lift is provided to convey from the downstream end of the sorting conveyor 38 to the upstream of the conveyor facility 10, and the front article 12A is again conveyed from the upstream.

  The control device is connected to and communicates with a sequencer that controls driving devices such as the conveyors 14, 16, 18 and the devices 20, 22, 66, and the like. The control device is a computer or the like that performs computation and control as described later. The control device includes software and hardware for performing desired control.

  Next, the control performed by the control device for the acceleration conveyor 16 to accelerate the article 12 will be described. In these explanations, it is assumed that two articles 12A and 12B are conveyed to the carry-in conveyor 14. The acceleration conveyor 16 is the first acceleration conveyor 16a on the upstream side, and the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth acceleration conveyors 16b, 16c, 16d, 16e, and 16f are sequentially arranged. If there is no particular distinction, the reference numeral is 16.

  Assume that the conveying speed of the article 12 on the carry-in conveyor 14 is V1, and the conveying speed of the article 12 on the carry-out conveyor 18 is V2. The conveying speed of the article 12 is accelerated from V1 to V2 by any one of the acceleration conveyors 16. After the transport speed is accelerated to V2, the transport speed is transported to the carry-out conveyor 18 as it is. By accelerating once and not repeating acceleration and deceleration, the article 12 is prevented from slipping against the belt. Misalignment of the article 12 is prevented.

  The change in the speed of the article 12 for each acceleration conveyor 16 is shown in FIG. The article 12 is accelerated by the fifth acceleration conveyor 16e at the latest. After the transport speed reaches V2, the transport speed V2 is maintained. When the article 16 is accelerated by the fourth acceleration conveyor 16d, the conveyance speed becomes V2 at a time earlier than the same article 16 is accelerated by the fifth acceleration conveyor 16e. In FIG. 6, the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents speed. Therefore, the distance that the article 12 can be conveyed in the same time is increased by the area X shown in FIG. This is the gain amount.

  The gain amount when accelerated by the fourth acceleration conveyor 16d is 1 (basic gain amount). Each accelerating conveyor 16 has the same configuration, and when accelerated by the third accelerating conveyor 16c, the second accelerating conveyor 16b, and the first accelerating conveyor 16a, the basic gain amount is doubled and tripled, respectively. The gain amount is 4 times. The interval between the articles 12 can be changed depending on which acceleration conveyor 16 is used for acceleration. For example, if the article 12A is accelerated by the fourth accelerating conveyor 16d and the article 12B is accelerated by the fifth accelerating conveyor 16e, the interval between the articles 12A and 12B is increased by a single gain amount. In the present invention, the interval of the articles 12 is adjusted by the accelerating conveyor 16 so that the interval can be sorted by the sorting conveyor 38.

  The control device determines the acceleration conveyor 16 at a position where acceleration is started, and accelerates the determined acceleration conveyor 16 and the acceleration conveyor 16 downstream of the acceleration conveyor 16. The control device determines the acceleration conveyor 16 for acceleration as follows.

  The minimum interval of the articles 12 that can be sorted is determined by the configuration of the sorting conveyor 38 and the width of the articles 12. Specifically, the shoe 46 moves when the front article 12 </ b> A is about to move to the branching conveyor 44. The minimum distance between which the rear article 12B is sandwiched by the moving shoe 46 is determined by the angle of the branch direction to the branch conveyor 44 with respect to the conveying direction of the sorting conveyor 38 and the width of the rear article 12B. Further, the distance between the articles is determined by the measuring device 20. When this interval is shorter than the minimum interval, the accelerating conveyor 16 needs to accelerate the article 12A in front so that the interval between the articles can ensure this minimum distance.

  The measuring device 20 determines the size of the article 12 and the interval between the articles. The lengths of the articles 12A and 12B in the carrying direction are LA and LB, the distance between the articles is C, and the speed ratio between the carrying speed of the carry-in conveyor 14 and the carrying speed of the carry-out conveyor 18 is Vx. Further, when both the articles 12A and 12B are accelerated by the same acceleration conveyor 16, the interval between the articles on the carry-out conveyor 18 is D in Expression 1.

  The width of the front article 12A is WA, and the angle between the conveying direction of the sorting conveyor 38 and the branching direction to the branching conveyor 44 is θ. The interval between necessary articles in the sorting conveyor 38 is E in Equation 2. Note that E is defined as a minimum value of the minimum interval determined by the structure of the sorting conveyor 38. When E is smaller than the minimum value, the minimum value is set.

  Next, a possible gain amount of the article 12 is determined. The possible amount of the gain amount is obtained from Equation 3 by using the gain amount of the article 12B in the rear by the article 12B in the front. Moreover, although the amount of error is included in Equation 3, the amount of error is appropriately set according to the conveyor facility 10. In FIG. 1, since there is no article 12 in front of the front article 12A, the gain amount of the front article 12A is set to four times the reference gain amount. The front article 12A is accelerated by the first accelerating conveyor 16a, and thereafter conveyed at a conveyance speed of V2.

  The result of Expression 3 is changed to the gain amount magnification, and the acceleration conveyor 16 that performs acceleration is determined. The method of changing the gain amount magnification is performed as shown in Table 1. For example, if the result of Equation 3 is 3.1, the gain amount is tripled, and the article 12 is accelerated by the second acceleration conveyor 16b. In Table 1, an integer is not used in consideration of an error that occurs during article conveyance, and is set as appropriate for each conveyor facility 10.

  As described above, the acceleration conveyor 16 for starting acceleration can be determined. When the article 12 is being conveyed by the carry-in conveyor 14, an acceleration conveyor 16 that performs acceleration is determined. The control device transmits a signal instructing acceleration to the determined acceleration conveyor 16 and the downstream acceleration conveyor 16.

  The timing of acceleration is when the center of gravity of the article 12 is placed on the determined acceleration conveyor 16. Accelerate with the first acceleration conveyor. In FIG. 7A, the front end of the article 12 is placed on the first acceleration conveyor 16a, and acceleration does not start. As shown in FIG. 7B, acceleration starts when the center of gravity of the article 12 is placed on the first acceleration conveyor 16a.

  The center of gravity of the article 12 is processed as the center in the conveyance direction of the article 12. The length of the article 12 in the transport direction is determined by the measuring device 20, and the position of the article 12 is also grasped by the number of pulses after the article 12 is detected. It is possible to recognize which article 12 is the article 12 detected by the detection device 22. The conveyance speed of the acceleration conveyor 16 is set in advance, and the time for detecting the article 12 is determined according to the length of the article 12. Therefore, it can be determined that the center of the article 12 is in the transport direction when the detection device 22 starts detecting the article 12 and the time becomes half of the time. When this center is reached, the first acceleration conveyor 16a is accelerated. A signal received from the detection device 22 is transmitted to the control device, and the control device obtains the center in the transport direction and transmits a signal instructing acceleration when the center is reached.

  The acceleration in the acceleration described above is determined within a range where the article 12 does not slip. If the acceleration is increased too much, the article 12 slips and the article 12 cannot be conveyed. If the acceleration is too small, it takes time to accelerate, the acceleration conveyor 16 becomes longer, and the conveyance efficiency of the article 12 becomes worse. For example, the acceleration is 0.28 times the Earth's gravitational acceleration.

  As described above, the acceleration conveyor 16 for starting acceleration is determined by the control device. The acceleration conveyor 16 on the downstream side of the determined acceleration conveyor 16 is also accelerated to the conveyance speed V2 of the carry-out conveyor 18. These accelerating conveyors 16 are set to the conveying speed V2 of the unloading conveyor 18 until the front end of the article 22 is placed. The front end of the article 22 is detected by the detection device 22. After the conveyance speed of the article 12 reaches V2, the article 12 is conveyed to the carry-out conveyor 18 without changing the conveyance speed. The article 12 is accelerated only once, and the article 12 is unlikely to be displaced.

  Note that the amount of error is taken into account in Equation 3 and Table 1, and the center of gravity of the actual article 12 is deviated from the center of the article 12, or some slippage occurs between the article 12 and each of the conveyors 14, 16, and 18. However, a desired interval can be provided.

  After the accelerating conveyor 16 accelerates the conveyance speed of the article 12 from V1 to V2, the conveyance speed is returned to V1 for acceleration of the next article 12. The timing for returning the conveyance speed from V2 to V1 is when the article 12 passes as shown in FIG. Deceleration is performed from the moment when the article 12 is no longer detected by the detection device 22 on the downstream side of the acceleration conveyor 16a. The control device receives a signal from the detection device 22 and transmits a signal instructing deceleration to the acceleration conveyor 16a. The deceleration may be performed in a shorter time than during acceleration.

  Through the above steps, the interval between articles becomes equal to or greater than the minimum interval at which sorting can be performed by the sorting conveyor 38. The interval between the articles 12 is adjusted immediately before the sorting conveyor 38, and the articles 12 can be sorted even if the interval between the articles 12 becomes narrower on the upstream side of the accelerating conveyor 16. The interval between the articles 12 can also be narrowed on the upstream side of the accelerating conveyor 16, and the conveying efficiency of the articles 12 as a whole conveyor facility is increased. The article 12 is accelerated only once, and the article 12 is less likely to be displaced, and a desired interval is easily obtained.

  As in the first embodiment, each accelerating conveyor 16 accelerates or decelerates the conveying speed of the article 12. However, depending on the interval between the articles 12 and the length of the article 12 in the conveyance direction, the article 12 that has reached the conveyance speed of the carry-out conveyor 18 may be placed on the acceleration conveyor 16 that has not been accelerated. It is necessary to prevent this.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the second acceleration conveyor 16b conveys the article 12 at the carry speed V2 of the carry-out conveyor 18, and the third acceleration conveyor 16c completes the acceleration to the carry speed V2 of the carry-out conveyor 18. If not. The third acceleration conveyor 16c on the downstream side needs to complete the acceleration before the article 12 is placed. This is because the article 12 that has been accelerated is not decelerated.

  When the front end of the article 12 is detected by the detection device 22 on the upstream side of the acceleration conveyor 16c that has not been accelerated, the acceleration is increased. For example, although the acceleration in the first embodiment is 0.28 times the gravitational acceleration, the acceleration is 0.7 times the gravitational acceleration. In a short time, the conveying speed of the article 12 of the acceleration conveyor 16 becomes V2. Although the front end portion of the article 12 may be placed on the acceleration conveyor 16 before the acceleration is completed after the front end of the article 12 is detected by the detection device 22, the center of gravity of the article 12 is not placed, and for a moment. Therefore, there is almost no effect. After the acceleration of the article 12, the conveyance speed of the article 12 is maintained at the conveyance speed of the carry-out conveyor 18.

  Or you may use the pulse produced | generated with the pulse encoder demonstrated in Example 1. FIG. The number of pulses generated by the pulse encoder after counting the article 12 by the measuring device 20 is counted. The position of the article 12 can be obtained from the number of pulses. After the article 12 is accelerated, when the article 12 reaches a predetermined position before the low-speed acceleration conveyor 16, the low-speed acceleration conveyor 16 may be accelerated in a shorter time than the normal acceleration. The conveying speed of the article 12 is set to the conveying speed V2 of the carry-out conveyor 18 in a short time. When the front end of the article 12 reaches the acceleration conveyor 16 on the downstream side, the conveyance speed V2 of the carry-out conveyor 18 is reached. The predetermined position for starting acceleration at high speed is determined from the difference between the conveyance speed of the article 12 and the conveyance speed of the carry-in conveyor 14 and the carry-out conveyor 18.

  As in the first embodiment, after the article 12 passes through the acceleration conveyor 16, the conveyance speed is reduced from V2 to V1 to prepare for the acceleration of the next article.

  As in the above-described embodiment, the article 12 is accelerated after being placed on the acceleration conveyor 16 having a conveyance speed of V1, thereby preventing misalignment of the article 12. Therefore, before the front end of the article 12 is placed on the acceleration conveyor 16, the conveyance speed is set to V2 or the conveyance speed of the acceleration conveyor 16 during deceleration is set to V1. The time until deceleration is known at the time of design, and the position of the article 12 can be grasped by the pulse of the pulse encoder. If the conveying speed of the acceleration conveyor 16 is not V1 when the front end of the article 12 reaches a predetermined position on the upstream side of the acceleration conveyor 16, power is supplied to the winding of the motor that drives the acceleration conveyor 16. Control to forcibly reduce the conveyance speed to V1. For example, when the front end of the article 12 comes to a position 100 mm upstream of the acceleration conveyor 16, the conveyance speed is reduced to 0.7 by gravity acceleration 0.7 times. Further, the acceleration conveyor 16 may be mechanically braked.

  Since the article 12 does not move on the acceleration conveyor 16 having a speed difference, the article 12 can be prevented from slipping with respect to the belt, and the article 12 can be prevented from being displaced. There is no positional deviation of the article 12, and a desired interval can be formed.

  When the first article 12 and the article 12 are sufficiently separated when sorting, and the gap between the article 12 and the front article 12 is wider than the minimum gap that can be sorted even when the gain amount of the maximum magnification is reached, the first Acceleration is performed from the acceleration conveyor 16a. Since the conveyance speed becomes V2 at an early stage, the conveyance efficiency of the article 12 is increased.

  As described in the embodiments, the article 12 is only accelerated, but the acceleration conveyor 16 repeats acceleration and deceleration. As described in the first embodiment, the acceleration conveyor 16 for starting the acceleration is determined for each article 12. In a certain acceleration conveyor 16, when the article 12 is continuously conveyed at the conveyance speed V2, the conveyance speed V2 may be maintained even after the previous article 12 has passed. Since the conveyance speed is maintained at V2, the subsequent article 12 is also conveyed at the conveyance speed V2.

  Depending on the length of the article 12, the article 12 may be placed on the downstream acceleration conveyor 16 before the center of gravity of the article 12 is placed on the determined acceleration conveyor 16 (FIG. 9). In such a case, when the center of gravity of the article 12 is placed on the determined acceleration conveyor 16, acceleration is started simultaneously with the downstream acceleration conveyor 16. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the first acceleration conveyor 16a and the second acceleration conveyor 16b are simultaneously accelerated.

  In the first embodiment, the fifth acceleration conveyor 16e is accelerated at the latest. However, in order to be able to accelerate the plurality of acceleration conveyors 16 at the same time, an additional sixth acceleration is provided on the downstream side of the fifth acceleration conveyor 16e. A conveyor 16f is provided. The number of additional acceleration conveyors is not limited to one, and a plurality of acceleration conveyors may be provided.

  In addition, the present invention can be carried out in a mode in which various improvements, modifications, and changes are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the gist thereof. Each embodiment is not independent and may be combined.

10: Conveyor equipment 12, 12A, 12B: Article 14: Conveyor for loading 16, 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, 16e, 16f: Conveyor for acceleration 18: Conveyor for unloading 20: Measuring device 22: Detection device 54: Length measurement Sensor 56: width measuring sensors 58, 62, 68: light emitting devices 60, 64, 70: light receiving devices

Claims (4)

A carry-in conveyor for conveying articles;
A measuring device for measuring the size and interval of articles conveyed by the carry-in conveyor;
A carry-out conveyor provided on the downstream side of the carry-in conveyor, for conveying articles at a speed higher than the carry speed of the carry-in conveyor;
A plurality of accelerating elements arranged in the conveying direction between the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor to accelerate the article conveyance speed from the carry-in conveyor speed to the carry-out conveyor speed and decelerate after the article passes. A conveyor,
A detection device for detecting the position of the article on the acceleration conveyor;
A control device that determines an acceleration conveyor for acceleration from the size and interval of the articles, and controls acceleration and deceleration of the acceleration conveyor according to the position of the articles detected by the detection device;
Conveyor equipment equipped with. The controller is
When the center of gravity of the article is placed on the determined acceleration conveyor, the determined acceleration conveyor is accelerated to the speed of the unloading conveyor;
All the acceleration conveyors downstream from the determined acceleration conveyor are accelerated to the speed of the carry-out conveyor before the article is loaded,
The conveyor equipment according to claim 1, wherein when the rear end or the center of gravity of the article passes through the accelerated conveyor, the passed acceleration conveyor is decelerated to the speed of the carry-in conveyor. The controller is
When the front end of an article is placed on the downstream acceleration conveyor while the acceleration conveyor downstream of the determined acceleration conveyor is accelerating, the acceleration of the downstream acceleration conveyor is increased to carry out The conveyor equipment according to claim 2, wherein the conveyor speed is set. The controller is
The conveyor equipment according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the acceleration conveyor is decelerated until the center of gravity of a new article is placed.

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