JP2020152388A - Accumulation device of bag-like article - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a compact accumulation device with a small setting area.SOLUTION: In an accumulation device, four corners of a rectangular bag-like article B are supported by support rails 18, and both sides of the bag-like article B are held by endless cog belts 20 formed with multiple uneven parts on rear faces thereof and the bag-like articles B are arranged with a predetermined pitch. The bag-like article B is fed to the upstream side of the cog belts 20 by a transfer device 16, and is pressed in between the cog belts 20 by a pusher 21. A sensor 17 detects the number of bag-like articles B fed to the cog belts 20. When the number reaches a predetermined number, the predetermined number of bag-like article groups BG supported by the support rails 18 and the cog belts 20 are held by grip pieces 22A and 24A from the front and rear sides of the proceeding direction and are transferred downstream in a clustered state.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an integrating device for accumulating flat and deformable articles such as bags at predetermined numbers.

Products such as tea bags are individually wrapped in flat bags, then bundled in predetermined numbers and packed in boxes or bags. Therefore, in such a product packaging operation, an integration device for accumulating products in units of a predetermined number is used. As an integrating device, a predetermined number of bags held so as to face each other at a constant pitch become longer from the inside to the outside, and gradually move toward the center from the upstream side to the downstream side. It is known that the bags are sequentially stacked and accumulated from the central bag by moving laterally along a plurality of guide plates arranged at intervals so as to form dents (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 6333572

However, in the configuration of Patent Document 1 and the like, it is necessary to arrange a long guide plate toward the side, so that a large installation area is required.

An object of the present invention is to provide a compact integrated device having a small installation area.

The article collecting device according to the first aspect of the present invention is an article collecting device that collects a predetermined number of flat and deformable articles, and has a support rail for supporting the articles and a plurality of uneven portions on the outer surface. A pair of transport means that are formed and support one side of the article supported by the support rail by recesses of the concave-convex portion, a supply means that supplies the article to the recesses, and a supply means that supplies the article to the recesses. A counting means for counting the number of articles, a moving means for moving a predetermined number of articles supported by the support rail and the conveying means in front and behind in the traveling direction and moving downstream, and the conveying means. The control means includes a control means for controlling the moving means, and each time the article is supplied to the recess of the transport means, the recess is moved by a predetermined distance to align the articles, and the counting means When the predetermined number of articles is counted and the predetermined number of articles are aligned, the moving means sandwiches the articles group in the front-rear direction and moves the articles, thereby taking out one side of the articles from the recesses of the conveying means. It is characterized in that the articles are brought into close contact with each other and transferred to the downstream of the conveying means.

In the first invention, the article accumulating device according to the second aspect of the present invention causes the control means to move the recesses by a distance longer than the predetermined distance when a predetermined number of articles are aligned. It is characterized in that the transport means is driven to widen the distance between the article located at the rearmost side of the article group and the newly supplied article.

In the second invention, the article accumulating device according to the third aspect of the present invention has a front grip piece in which the moving means engages with an article located on the frontmost side of the article group, and the rearmost part of the article group. A rear grip piece that engages with an article located on the side, a grip piece moving means that moves the grip piece along the transport direction of the transport means, and a forward position that engages the rear grip piece with the article. It has a rear grip one-sided advancing / retreating means for advancing / retreating to a retracting position that does not engage with, and the control means widens the distance between the article located at the rearmost side in the transporting means and the newly supplied article. After that, the posterior grip piece is advanced to position the posterior grip piece between the article located on the rearmost side and the newly supplied article.

The article stacking device according to the fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first to third inventions, the support rails support the four corners of the article.

In the first to fourth inventions, the article accumulating device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention is a transfer means for delivering the article to the support rail and a transfer means for delivering the article to the support rail by the transfer means. It is characterized by having a pusher that pushes out the article and supplies it to the recess of the transport means.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a compact integration device having a small installation area.

It is a perspective view of the integration apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a side view of the integration device of FIG. It is a top view of the integration device of FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing a state in which bag-shaped articles are aligned at a predetermined pitch with a certain gap between them by left and right cog belts. It is the figure which looked at the bag-shaped article held by the support rail and the cog belt at the upstream end of the article alignment section from the downstream side. It is the figure which looked at the bag-shaped article held by the support rail in the article take-out section from the downstream side. It is a side view of the integration apparatus of 2nd Embodiment. It is the figure which looked at the bag-shaped article held by the support rail and the cog belt at the upstream end of the article alignment section from the upstream side of the accumulator. It is a side view which looked at the accumulator conveyor of FIG. 7 from the right side.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the integration device according to the first embodiment of the present invention viewed from diagonally above, FIG. 2 is a side view of the integration device of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view.

The accumulating device 10 of the present embodiment is an apparatus for accumulating a predetermined number of bag-shaped articles B individually wrapped in a flat bag using a deformable material such as paper or a resin film, for example, an article such as a tea bag. is there. The bag-shaped article B has, for example, a rectangular shape, and is conveyed substantially horizontally while being laid down on the transfer surface of the supply conveyor 12 with one side directed downstream in the transfer direction. The bag-shaped articles B transported on the supply conveyor 12 may be transported at random intervals, but are drawn at substantially equal intervals in FIGS. 1 and 2. Further, in FIG. 1, the supply conveyor 12 is omitted.

At the downstream end of the supply conveyor 12, a transfer device (transfer means) 16 is arranged in which a horizontal bag-shaped member B is erected substantially vertically and transferred to the accumulator 14. The transfer device 16 of the present embodiment includes a pair of upper and lower endless belts 16A and 16B, the endless belts 16A and 16B are superposed vertically, and the bag-shaped article B is sandwiched between the endless belts 16A and 16B and conveyed. Will be done. The transport path of the bag-shaped article B defined by the endless belts 16A and 16B has an arc shape of about 1/4, and at the upstream end, the horizontal bag-shaped article B is received from the downstream end of the supply conveyor 12 and downstream. The bag-shaped article B is placed in a vertical position at the end, and the bag-shaped article B is supplied one by one to the accumulator 14 located below the bag-shaped article B. A sensor 17 (see FIG. 2) for counting the number of bag-shaped articles B conveyed between the endless belts 16A and 16B and supplied to the accumulator 14 is arranged adjacent to the transfer device 16. Then, the signal of the sensor 17 is transmitted to the control device 19 to count the number of bag-shaped articles B, and the sensor 17 and the control device 19 correspond to the counting means.

The accumulator 14 holds the supplied bag-shaped articles B in a substantially upright position facing each other at a predetermined pitch in the horizontal direction. The accumulator 14 includes four parallel support rails 18 having an L-shaped cross section that engage the four corners of the rectangular bag-shaped article B, and each support rail 18 is arranged in the horizontal direction.

The accumulator 14 is provided with a pair of upper and lower endless cog belts (conveying means) 20 between the upper and lower support rails 18 arranged on the left and right. Each of the cog belts 20 is provided with cogs (concavo-convex portions) having a predetermined pitch perpendicular to the belt traveling direction on the back surface. The cog belts 20 are arranged in parallel with the support rails 18, and the bag-shaped articles B supplied to the accumulator conveyor 14 are aligned at a predetermined pitch in a substantially upright state. That is, by holding the left and right side sides of each bag-shaped article B in each recess 20B (see FIG. 4) of the cog, the cog belt 20 holds the bag-shaped article B in a substantially upright state and in a direction facing each other. And align. In the following description, a state in which a predetermined number (20 in this embodiment) of bag-shaped articles B are arranged with respect to each bag-shaped article B is referred to as a bag-shaped article group BG.

The cog belt 20 is provided only in a part of the section from the slightly downstream side of the upstream end of the support rail 18 toward the downstream side of the support rail 18. This section is used as an article alignment section A1 for aligning the bag-shaped articles B at a predetermined pitch. On the other hand, in the section on the downstream side of the article alignment section A1 consisting of only the support rail 18, a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs aligned in the article alignment section A1 are brought into close contact with each other in the article alignment direction and taken out as a bundle. It is used as.

At the upstream end of the accumulator 14, the upper support rail 18 is shorter than the lower support rail 18, and the bag-shaped article B dropped from the transfer device 16 interferes with the cog belt 20 and the upper support rail 18. It falls without a hitch and is received by a pair of lower support rails 18. On the upstream side of the upstream end of the accumulator 14, the back surface of the bag-shaped article B received by the lower support rail 18 is pushed from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the bag-shaped article B is pushed between the left and right cog belts 20. A push-in pusher 21 is provided. The left and right sides of the bag-shaped article B pushed by the pusher 21 are pressed against the convex portions 20A (see FIG. 4) of the cogs of the cog belts 20 on both sides, and both sides are bent to overcome the convex portions 20A. It is housed in the recess 20B.

The push-in pusher 21 of the present embodiment is provided at the tip of a swing arm 21B that swings around a horizontal rotation shaft 21A. When the swing arm 21B swings around the rotation shaft 21A, the pusher 21 is moved toward the substantially longitudinal direction of the support rail 18 in the vicinity of the substantially center of the back surface of the bag-shaped article B supported by the support rail 18. It can move back and forth. When the bag-shaped article B is inserted into the recess 20B by the push-in pusher 21, the four cog belts 20 synchronizely move the cogs on the opposite sides toward the downstream side of the accumulator 14 by a predetermined pitch and supply them. The bag-shaped article B next supplied from the conveyor 12 is inserted into the recess 20B at the uppermost stream end in the parallel portion of the cog belt 20 by the pusher 21.

Gripper moving mechanisms 22 and 24, which are linear guides and the like, are provided on both sides of the accumulator 14. The gripper moving mechanisms 22 and 24 move the grip pieces 22A and 24A that gather and bundle a predetermined number of bag-shaped articles BG held in the recess 20B of the cog belt 20 in the longitudinal direction of the accumulator 14 along the longitudinal direction. It is a mechanism to do.

The gripper moving mechanism 22 moves the rear integrated grip piece 22A that abuts on the back surface of the bag-shaped article B located on the most upstream side of the predetermined number of bag-shaped articles B held in the recess 20B of the cog belt 20. It is the mechanism of. On the other hand, the gripper moving mechanism 24 moves the front grip piece 24A that abuts on the front surface of the bag-shaped article B located on the most downstream side among the predetermined number of bag-shaped articles B held in the recess 20B of the cog belt 20. It is the mechanism of.

The gripper moving mechanism 22 includes, for example, a pair of guide rails 22B arranged side by side along one side side of the accumulator 14. The rear grip piece 22A is hung on the guide rails 22B and attached to the block 22D slidably moving along the guide rails 22B via the air cylinder 22C. The block 22D is attached to an endless belt 22E booked along its longitudinal direction between the left and right guide rails 22B, and the endless belt 22E is driven by a motor 22F. As a result, the block 22D, that is, the rear grip piece 22A can reciprocate along the longitudinal direction of the accumulator 14. It should be noted that FIGS. 1 and 2 show the state when the block 22D is located on the most upstream side and the state when the block 22D is located on the most downstream side.

On the other hand, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 3, the grip moving mechanism 24 is arranged along the side side opposite to the pusher moving mechanism 22, and is arranged in parallel with the accumulator 14. It is equipped with 24B. The front grip piece 24A is hung on the guide rail 24B and attached to the block 24D slidably moving along the guide rails 24B via the air cylinder 24C. The block 24D is attached to an endless belt 24E stored along the longitudinal direction between the left and right guide rails 24B, and the endless belt 24E is driven by the motor 24F. As a result, the block 24D, that is, the front grip piece 24A, can reciprocate along the longitudinal direction of the accumulator 14.

The rear grip piece 22A has a retracted position lowered to a height that does not interfere with the bag-shaped article B held by the accumulator 22C by the air cylinder 22C, and substantially the center of the back surface of the bag-shaped article B held by the accumulator 14. It can be raised and lowered to and from the accumulation position raised to a height that allows it to be pressed against. Further, the front grip piece 24A also has a retracted position lowered to a height that does not interfere with the bag-shaped article B held by the accumulator 24C by the air cylinder 24C, and an abbreviation for the front surface of the bag-shaped article B held by the accumulator 14. It can be raised and lowered to and from the accumulation position raised to a height that can be pressed into the center.

In FIG. 2, a state in which the rear grip piece 22A stands by at the most upstream retracted position and a state in which the front grip piece 24A is set at the most upstream integrated position are drawn with solid lines, and the rear grip piece is drawn. The state in which 22A and the front grip piece 24A are set at the most downstream stacking position is drawn by a broken line. That is, in FIG. 2, in the article alignment section A1, a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs aligned at a predetermined pitch by the cog belt 20 are shown by solid lines, and the rear grip piece 22A and the front grip piece 24A form a row. The state of being sandwiched from the front and back and moved to the article taking-out section A2 on the downstream side is shown by a broken line. Although the support rail 18 is omitted in FIG. 2, the four corners of the bag-shaped article B in the article alignment section A1 and the article take-out section A2 are held by the support rail 18.

Next, the integration operation by the grip pieces 22A and 24A will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a state in which the bag-shaped articles B are aligned by the left and right cog belts 20 at a predetermined pitch with a certain gap between them. Further, FIG. 5 is a schematic arrow view of the bag-shaped article B held by the support rail 18 and the cog belt 20 at the upstream end of the article alignment section A1 as viewed from the downstream side, and FIG. 6 is an article take-out section. It is a schematic arrow view view of the bag-shaped article B held by the support rail 18 in A2 as seen from the downstream side.

As shown in FIG. 4, the bag-shaped article B supplied to the accumulator 14 is pushed by the pusher 21 between the cog belts 20 provided in the article alignment section A1. That is, the back surface of the bag-shaped article B, which is loaded from the transfer device 16 and whose lower two corners are supported by the pair of lower support rails 18 at the upstream end of the accumulator 14, is pushed by the push pusher 21. Then, the left and right side sides are pressed against the convex portion 20A of the cog belt 20. Both sides of the bag-shaped article B pressed against the convex portion 20A are bent, and are accommodated in the concave portion 20B over the convex portion 20A of the cog belt 20. At this time, the rear gripper piece 22A is held in the cog belt 20 at the retracted position, that is, below the bag-shaped article B held by the cog belt 20, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 2 and FIG. It stands by at a position slightly upstream of the most upstream bag-shaped article B to be made. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the front grip piece 24A is above the stacking position, that is, above the bag-shaped article B held by the cog belt 20, and is first supplied to the cog belt 20 by the push pusher 21. It stands by at a position where it engages with the front surface of the most downstream bag-shaped article B.

When both sides of the bag-shaped article B are held in the recesses 20B of the left and right cog belts 20, the cog belt 20 travels a predetermined distance toward the downstream side, and the front grip piece 24A also synchronizes with the cog belt 20 on the downstream side. Move a predetermined distance to. As a result, the bag-shaped article B is conveyed downstream by one pitch (one pitch of the aligned articles). In the example shown in FIG. 4, since the bag-shaped article B is held every two pitches of the cog, one pitch of the bag-shaped article B is set to two pitches of the cog. In the accumulator 14, when the bag-shaped article B is supplied, the bag-shaped article B is fitted into the recess 20B of the cog belt 20, and the cog belt 20 and the front grip piece 24A are moved by two pitches of cogs to move a predetermined number of bag-shaped articles. This operation is repeated until B is aligned with the cog belt 20.

The number of bag-shaped articles B supplied to the accumulator 14 is counted by the sensor 17 and the control device 19 (see FIG. 2), which are counting means. When the number of bag-shaped articles B counted by the counting means reaches a predetermined number and the bag-shaped articles BG are aligned, the rear grip piece 22A is raised to the accumulation position and the downstream grip piece 24A is located downstream. By moving it toward the side, a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs held by the cog belt 20 are moved downstream while being taken out from both sides housed in the recess 20B by the rear grip piece 22A, and are moved back and forth. It is held narrowly by the grip pieces 22A and 24A of the above, and is accumulated in a state where the front and rear surfaces are in close contact with each other. When the bag-shaped article group BG is narrowed by the front and rear grip pieces 22A and 24A, both the front grip piece 24A is moved to the upstream side and the rear grip piece 22A is moved to the downstream side. The grip pieces 22A and 24A may be moved and held narrowly.

When a predetermined number of bag-shaped articles BG are arranged on the cog belt 20, the speed of the cog belt 20 is increased for a short period of time, and the rear grip piece 22A is held by the cog belt 20 by the air cylinder 22C. Raised to an engageable stacking position. That is, in the present embodiment, by increasing the speed of the cog belt 20, the bag-shaped articles B located at the uppermost stream of the bag-shaped articles group BG arranged in a predetermined number and the bag-shaped articles B newly supplied The distance between them is widened to prevent the rear grip piece 22A from interfering with the bag-shaped article B when the rear grip piece 22A is raised. The speed of the cog belt 20 is not necessarily increased when the distance between the bag-shaped articles B located at the uppermost stream of the bag-shaped articles BG arranged in a predetermined number and the newly supplied bag-shaped articles B is increased. It is not necessary to increase the speed. For example, the speeds of the supply conveyor 12 and the endless belts 16A and 16B may be reduced or stopped while the speed of the cog belt 20 remains the same.

When the moving operation by the grip pieces 22A and 24A is started, the front grip piece 24A is arranged at a position where it abuts on the front surface of the bag-shaped article B on the most downstream side, and when the moving operation is started, the gripper moving mechanism 22 rear side. The grip piece 22A is moved toward the front grip piece 24A. As a result, the bag-shaped articles B held in the recess 20B of the cog belt 20 are bent at the side sides and sequentially pushed from the back side to the downstream side by the rear grip piece 22A, and a predetermined number of bag-shaped articles B are pushed. The group BG is sandwiched between the front and rear grip pieces 22A and 24A and superposed.

When all the predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs held by the cog belt 20 are stacked, the gripper moving mechanism 24 is also driven, and the front grip piece 24A is downstream with the bag-shaped article B sandwiched by the rear grip piece 22A. Moved to the side. That is, a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BG sandwiched between the front and rear grip pieces 22A and 24A is slid on the rail with the four corners supported by the support rail 18, and the articles are slid by the front and rear grip pieces 22A and 24A. It is moved to the take-out section A2.

After that, the bag-shaped articles B accumulated in the article take-out section A2 are taken out while maintaining the overlapped state, and are boxed, for example, on the downstream side. During that time, the bag-shaped article B is supplied from the supply conveyor 12 to the article alignment section A1, and as described above, the pusher 21 and the cog belt 20 cooperate with each other until the number of bag-shaped articles B reaches a predetermined number. Align in between.

The rear grip piece 22A that has moved the bag-shaped article B to the article take-out section A2 is lowered to the retracted height by the air cylinder 22C, and is returned to the standby position on the upstream side by the gripper moving mechanism 22. Further, the front grip piece 24A is also returned to the upstream side to the initial position where it abuts on the bag-shaped article B on the most downstream side of the cog belt 20. The operation of the push pusher 21, the cog belt 20, the gripper moving mechanism 22, and the like is controlled by the control device 19 based on the count value from the sensor 17.

As described above, since the integration device 10 of the first embodiment does not need to arrange a long guide plate toward the side as in the conventional case, the integration device 10 can be compactly configured and the installation area is significantly reduced. it can. Further, the number of integrated pieces can be changed only by changing the control of the cog belt 20, the front integrated grip piece 24A, and the rear integrated grip piece 22A, and the duality is also excellent.

Next, the integration device of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 9. In the integration device 10 of the first embodiment, the accumulator 14 is arranged along the horizontal direction, but in the second embodiment, the accumulator is arranged along the vertical direction and is placed on the transfer device (transfer means). A suction conveyor is used. Other configurations are substantially the same as those of the first embodiment, and the same reference numerals are used for the same configurations as those of the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted. 7 is a side view of the integration device 30 of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows the bag-shaped article B held by the support rail 18 and the cog belt 20 at the upstream end of the article alignment section A1. It is a schematic arrow view seen from the upstream side of the accumulator 32 of the form. Further, FIG. 9 is a side view of the accumulator 32 of FIG. 7 as viewed from the right side.

Similar to the accumulator 14 of the first embodiment, the accumulator 32 of the second embodiment has four support rails 18 arranged from the article alignment section A1 to the article take-out section A2, and the article alignment section A1. It is provided with four cog belts 20 arranged only on the. The accumulator 32 is vertically arranged so that the article alignment section A1 is on the top and the article take-out section A2 is on the bottom, and the bag-shaped article B is pushed between the left and right cog belts 20 by using the pusher 21 from above. ..

The supply conveyor 12 for supplying the bag-shaped article B is arranged horizontally at the height of the upstream end of the accumulator 32, and supplies the bag-shaped article B from the side thereof. Above the downstream portion of the supply conveyor 12, a suction conveyor 34 is arranged in parallel as a device for transferring the bag-shaped article B to the accumulator 32. The suction conveyor 34 is arranged horizontally with a gap of approximately the thickness of the bag-shaped article B from the transport surface of the supply conveyor 12.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, the suction conveyor 34 includes a pair of endless belts 34A and a pair of suction boxes 34B. The endless belt 34A and the suction box 34B are provided with a large number of holes, and the suction box 34B is arranged inside the endless belt 34A adjacent to the lower span. The suction box 34B is connected to a vacuum device (not shown), so that the upper surface of the bag-shaped article B conveyed on the supply conveyor 12 is attracted to the back surface of the endless belt 34A at the downstream portion of the supply conveyor 12. The bag-shaped article B adsorbed on the suction conveyor 34 is conveyed toward the downstream end of the suction conveyor 34 by the endless belt 34A traveling at the same speed as the supply conveyor 12. The number of bag-shaped articles B conveyed by the suction conveyor 34 is counted by the sensor 17 and the control device 19 (not shown in FIG. 7).

The suction conveyor 34 extends further downstream from the downstream end of the supply conveyor 12, and the downstream end thereof is located above the upstream end of the accumulator 32. When the bag-shaped article B held and conveyed by the suction conveyor 34 reaches the downstream end of the suction conveyor 34, the bag-shaped article B is pushed downward toward the accumulator 14 by the push pusher 21, and the bag-shaped article B is pushed downward. It is pushed between the left and right cog belts 20 of the accumulator 32. That is, both sides of the bag-shaped article B are held in the recesses 20B of the cog belt 20. After that, the cog belt 20 is moved by a predetermined pitch, and during that time, the next bag-shaped article B is moved to the upstream end of the accumulator 32 by the suction conveyor 34. Then, the next bag-shaped article B is pushed into the recess 20B of the cog belt 20 by the push pusher 21.

When a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs are aligned at a predetermined pitch in the article alignment section A1 provided with the cog belt 20, a predetermined number of bags are provided by the front and rear grip pieces 36A and 36B provided on the gripper moving mechanism 36. The shape article group BG is accumulated in a state of being sandwiched from the front and back and stacked, and is moved to the article take-out section A2 along the support rail 18. The integrated pushers 36A and 36B can advance and retreat in the horizontal direction between the retracted position using the air cylinder 36C and the integrated position where the bag-shaped article B is sandwiched between the grip pieces 36A and 36B and moved.

When the bag-shaped article group BG is transferred, the grip pieces 36A and 36B are lowered to the article take-out section A2 while shortening the distance between them by the elevating mechanism 36D together with the air cylinder 36C. When the bag-shaped article group BG transferred by an article taking-out means (not shown) is taken out from the article taking-out section A2, the grip pieces 36A and 36B are retracted to the retracted position by the air cylinder 36C and raised to the original position by the elevating mechanism 36D. Cylinder. Hereinafter, the same processing operation is repeated every time a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs are aligned in the article alignment section A1. In FIG. 9, a predetermined number of bag-shaped article group BGs arranged in the recesses of the cog belt 20 at a predetermined pitch are shown by solid lines, and are sandwiched between the rear grip piece 36B and the front grip piece 36B from the front and back of the row. The state of being moved to the article taking-out section A2 on the downstream side is shown by a broken line.

As described above, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained in the integration device of the second embodiment.

In the present embodiment, the bag-shaped articles are arranged by using a cog belt having a recess on the back surface, but it is sufficient to provide an uneven portion for holding the side sides of the bag-shaped article at a predetermined pitch, and a screw conveyor is used instead of the cog belt. Can also be used. Further, the place where the bag-shaped article is held is not limited to the side side, but may be the upper and lower sides. Further, the shape of the recess for holding the bag-shaped article is not limited to the shape illustrated in FIG. 4, and may be, for example, U-shaped or V-shaped. In the present embodiment, the bag-shaped article has been described as an example, but the accumulated articles are not limited to the bag-shaped article, and any deformable flat article may be used.

10 Accumulation equipment 12 Supply conveyor 14 Accumulation conveyor 16, 34 Transfer equipment (transfer means, supply means)
17 Sensor (counting means)
18 Support rail 19 Control device 20 Endless cog belt (conveying means)
20A Convex part 20B Concave part 21 Pushing pusher (supply means)
22A, 24A, 36A, 36B Grip piece (means of transportation)

Claims (5)

An article collecting device that accumulates a predetermined number of flat and deformable articles.
A support rail that supports the article and
A pair of conveying means in which a plurality of uneven portions are formed on the outer surface and one side of the article supported by the support rail is supported by the concave portions of the uneven portion.
A supply means for supplying the article to the recess and
A counting means for counting the number of the articles supplied to the transport means,
A moving means that moves a predetermined number of articles supported by the support rail and the transport means downstream by sandwiching them in the front-rear direction in the traveling direction and bringing them into close contact with each other.
The transport means and the control means for controlling the moving means are provided.
Each time the article is supplied to the recess of the transport means, the control means moves the recess by a predetermined distance to align the articles, and the counting means counts the articles in a predetermined number and counts the articles in a predetermined number. When the groups are aligned, the article group is sandwiched between the front and back by the moving means and moved, so that the article group is brought into close contact with the article group while taking out one side of the article from the recess of the conveying means, and the downstream of the conveying means. An article collection device characterized by being transferred to. When a predetermined number of articles are aligned, the control means drives the transport means so as to move the recesses by a distance longer than the predetermined distance, and is newly added to the articles located at the rearmost side of the articles. The article collecting device according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the article and the article supplied to the device is increased. The moving means includes a front grip piece that engages with an article located on the frontmost side of the article group, a rear grip piece that engages with an article located on the rearmost side of the article group, and the grip pieces. It has a grip piece moving means for moving the rear grip piece along the transport direction of the transport means, and a rear grip one-sided moving / retreating means for advancing / retreating the rear grip piece to a forward position where the article is engaged and a backward position where the rear grip piece is not engaged. And
After widening the distance between the article located on the rearmost side and the article newly supplied in the transport means, the control means advances the rear grip piece to newly position the article on the rearmost side. The article collecting device according to claim 2, wherein the rear grip piece is positioned between the article and the article to be supplied. The article collecting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the support rail supports the four corners of the article. The supply means has a transfer means for delivering the article to the support rail, and a pusher for pushing out the article delivered to the support rail by the transfer means and supplying the article to the recess of the transport means. The article accumulating device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the article accumulating device.

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