JP2005106593A - Combinatorial metering apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a worker to grasp each kind of information on number management clearly, and to perform appropriate supply processing according to the information. <P>SOLUTION: A degree-of-overlapping calculation means 41 obtains the relationship between the number of articles and a value for indicating the degree of overlapping of weight probability distribution for each article from the average weight and standard deviation of the simple substance of an article to be metered set by a simple substance information setting means 40. A graph display means 42 graphically displays the relationship obtained by the degree-of-overlapping calculation means 41 on a display 32. A determination condition setting means 43 is configured so that an arbitrary degree value on the displayed graph can be set as number determination conditions in a range in which the weight probability distribution for each article number obtained from the single substance information overlaps. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a process of combination of numbers in a combination weighing device that discharges articles each having a variation in weight collectively by a predetermined amount.

  A combination weighing device is used to collect a predetermined amount of articles, such as confectionery, vegetables, fruits and the like, which are individually variable in weight.

  The combination weighing device weighs the articles supplied to multiple hoppers that can store and discharge articles, performs a combination calculation of the measured values, selects a combination whose combination weight falls within a predetermined range, and selects The items included in the combination are discharged from the hopper and put together.

  In such a combination weighing device, for example, when weighing articles such as candy and stick candy packed in a small bag, there are cases where not only the weight but also the number is required to fall within the target range.

  In order to respond to the combination request for the number in this way, in the conventional combination weighing device, the average value and the standard deviation of the weight of a single unit are obtained in advance, and the weight probability for each number of articles obtained from the average value and the standard deviation of the single unit The weight range taken by the distribution was obtained, and the number of weights was determined by examining which weight range the weight value obtained by weighing the articles contained in each hopper falls.

  In this way, a technique for obtaining the weight range taken by the weight probability distribution for each number of articles obtained from the average weight and standard deviation of a single unit, and converting the weight value of the articles accommodated in the hopper into the number based on the weight range Is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1 below.

Japanese Patent No. 2630824

  However, in the conventional combination weighing apparatus as described above, the number determination is performed with the upper limit being a range in which the weight range (3σ or 4σ range) taken by the weight probability distribution for each number obtained from the average value and standard deviation of the single item does not overlap. For example, if the number of articles with a large dispersion with respect to the average weight is to be determined, the number of items that can be determined becomes very small, and the number of articles supplied to each hopper needs to be reduced accordingly. There was a problem that the measurement efficiency was reduced.

  In particular, the accuracy required for piece management varies depending on the item, and some items need to be managed but do not require strictness. The management state could not be set and lacked flexibility.

  In addition, there is a problem that information such as the relationship between the accuracy of the number determination and the number cannot be clearly grasped by the worker side, and appropriate supply processing according to the information cannot be performed, and excessive supply is not possible. There are problems such as generating many good products and reducing the operation efficiency by supplying too little.

  An object of the present invention is to solve this problem and to provide a combination weighing device that allows an operator to clearly grasp various pieces of information about the number management and perform an appropriate supply process according to the information. .

In order to achieve the above object, a combination weighing device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises:
A plurality of hoppers (21) capable of accommodating and discharging articles;
Weighing means (23, 34) for detecting the weight of the articles accommodated in the hopper,
Unit information setting means (40) for setting the average weight and standard deviation of a single item to be weighed as unit information;
Determination condition setting means (43) for setting a number determination condition in a range where weight probability distributions for each number of articles obtained from the single information overlap.
A determination weight range calculation means (44) for calculating a determination weight range for the number determination based on the single unit information and the number determination condition;
Number determination means (35) for determining the number of articles accommodated in the hopper based on the determination weight range calculated by the determination weight range calculation means and the weight value detected by the weighing means;
Combination selection means (36) for selecting a combination in which at least the number of combinations falls within a predetermined target range from among the combinations of articles whose number has been determined by the number determination means;
Discharging means (37) for discharging the articles selected by the combination selecting means from the hopper.

Further, the combination weighing device according to claim 2 of the present invention is the combination weighing device according to claim 1,
An overlap degree value calculating means (41) for obtaining a relationship between the number of articles and a value representing the degree of overlap of the weight probability distribution for each piece from the single information;
Graph display means (42, 32) for displaying the relationship obtained by the overlap degree value calculation means in a graph;
The number determination condition setting means is configured to set an arbitrary degree value on the graph displayed by the graph display means as the determination condition.

Further, the combination weighing device according to claim 3 of the present invention is the combination weighing device according to claim 1 or 2,
A recommended supply number calculating means (45) for calculating a recommended supply number of articles to the hopper based on the determination condition;
And a recommended supply number display means (46, 32) for displaying the recommended supply number calculated by the recommended supply number calculation means.

A combination weighing device according to claim 4 of the present invention is the combination weighing device according to claim 3,
A supply device (22) for supplying articles to the plurality of hoppers;
Supply control means (39) for controlling the supply device so that the number of articles supplied to each hopper becomes the recommended supply number.

  Since it comprised in this way, in the combination weighing | measuring device of this invention, the number determination by the determination conditions arbitrarily set including the range where the weight probability distribution for every number overlaps is attained.

  In addition, since the relationship between the number and the overlap value of the weight probability distribution for each number is obtained and displayed in a graph, the relationship between the number and the error in the number determination can be grasped intuitively, and the graph The determination conditions can be set as described above, and the setting operation becomes easy.

  In addition, when the recommended supply number of articles to the hopper is calculated and displayed based on the set determination condition, the optimum supply number of articles can be accurately grasped under the determination condition set by the operator, and the supply amount setting work, etc. Can be performed accurately.

  In addition, in the case of having a supply device for supplying articles to a plurality of hoppers and having a means for controlling the supply apparatus so that the number of articles supplied to each article receiver becomes the recommended supply number, the number determination according to the set condition Can be performed efficiently.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a combination weighing device 20 to which the present invention is applied.

  The mechanism portion of the combination weighing device 20 includes a plurality of hoppers 21,..., 21 that can receive and discharge articles by opening and closing the bottom, a plurality of supply devices 22 that supply articles to each hopper 21,. .., 23 for weighing each of the articles supplied to the hopper 21, and an aggregator 24 for collecting and discharging the articles discharged from each hopper 21.

  In FIG. 1, the chute type collector 24 is shown, but a conveyor type collector 24 may be used. In addition, the chute type collector 24 is provided with a sorting mechanism 24a for sorting non-defective products determined not to contain missing products and defective products determined to contain missing products to different discharge paths. However, when the conveyor type collector 24 is used, it is possible to switch the discharge path between the non-defective product and the defective product by switching the transport direction.

  Each supply device 22 is constituted by, for example, a vibration conveyance type feeder, and the supply force of the article to the hopper 21 is determined by the vibration time or the vibration amplitude.

  Each weighing instrument 23 constitutes the weighing means of this embodiment together with the weight calculation means 34 of the controller 30 to be described later. Each weighing instrument 23 supports the hopper 21 and is accommodated in the supporting hopper 21 and the hopper. A weighing signal corresponding to the total load of the article is output to the controller 30.

  The controller 30 includes an operation unit 31, a display 32, and a control device 33 having a microcomputer configuration, and at least switching between an operation mode and a setting mode is possible by operation of the operation unit.

  In the operation mode, a weight detection process, a number determination process, a combination selection process, an article discharge process, an article supply process, and the like are performed based on the weighing signal from each weighing instrument 23.

  Further, in the setting mode, in response to the operation of the operation unit 31, various parameter setting processes necessary for driving the article to be weighed are performed.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional configuration of the control device 33. First, a portion that functions in the operation mode will be described.

  The weight calculation means 34 stores a weighing signal output from each weighing instrument 23 when no article is supplied to the corresponding hopper 21 as its own quantity in an internal memory (not shown), and the hopper itself. The weight value of the article is calculated by subtracting the amount from the weighing signal when the article is supplied.

  The number determination means 35 uses the determination weight ranges Hr (1) to Hr (N) for each number calculated in advance by a determination weight range calculation means 44 described later and the weight value Wx detected by the weight weighing means 34. Based on this, the number M of articles accommodated in each hopper 21 is determined. Further, when the weight value Wx exceeds the maximum weight range Hr (N), the number determination means 35 outputs an over signal to the combination selection means 36 and the over product discharge means 38.

  The combination selection unit 36 calculates the weight by the weight calculation unit 34 and the combination of articles determined to be an appropriate number without being over-determined by the number determination unit 35, within a preset target weight range and Select the combination that will be the target number range. Only a combination of the numbers may be selected.

  The non-defective product discharging means 37 opens and closes the hopper 21 storing the articles selected by the combination selecting means 36 and discharges the stored articles to the collector 24.

  The over-goods discharge means 38 temporarily regulates the discharge of the good goods by the good-quality discharge means 37 at a predetermined timing, for example, when the total number of over-determined hoppers exceeds a predetermined ratio of the total number of hoppers. The over-determined hopper 21 is opened and closed and discharged to the collector 24, and the sorting mechanism 24a is driven to collect and discharge to a position different from the non-defective product.

  When the article is discharged from the hopper 21 by the non-defective product discharging means 37 and the over-goods discharging means 38, the supply control means 39 drives and controls the supply device 22 corresponding to the empty hopper to supply a new article. .

  The supply control unit 39 controls the supply force of each supply device 22 so that the supply number of articles to each hopper becomes a recommended supply number P calculated by a recommended supply number calculation unit 45 described later. This supply amount control is automatically performed based on, for example, a comparison result between the average value of the supply numbers of each hopper 21 determined by the number determination means 35 (average value for each hopper and the entire hopper) and the recommended supply number P. It is.

Next, the part which functions in the setting mode will be described.
The unit information setting means 40 is for setting the average weight A and the standard deviation σ of the single item to be weighed in advance as the single unit information. For example, before the weighing operation, the unit weight of the unit is set to a predetermined number. The average weight A and standard deviation σ are calculated with a scale or the like, and the calculated values are set and stored by operating the operation unit 31.

  Further, without using a separate scale, the articles to be weighed are supplied one by one to the hopper 21 of the weighing device 20 to measure the unit weight, and the average weight A and the standard deviation σ are calculated inside the controller. May be.

  The overlapping degree value calculating means 41 obtains the relationship between the number of articles and the value representing the overlapping degree of the weight probability distribution for each number from the single information set by the single information setting means 40.

  The value representing the degree of overlap may be either the probability area α (n) of the overlapping portion of the distribution or the probability area β (n) excluding the overlapping portion.

  The area α (n) of the overlapping portion is a probability that it is unknown whether the number is n or (n−1) in the distribution of n articles, and is referred to as the overlapping rate in the following description. In addition, the area β (n) excluding the overlapping portion is a probability that it can be determined that it is surely n or more. In the following description, this probability β is called the number determination accuracy.

  Here, a case will be described in which the overlap degree value calculating means 41 obtains the overlap ratio α and sets the number determination accuracy β obtained based on the overlap ratio α to a final degree value.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the weight ranges H1, H2,... Taken by the weight probability distributions F (1), F (2),.
Hn = n · A ± 4 · σ · (n) ^1/2
And examine the overlap rate of each distribution.

  Here, the overlap rate α for a certain distribution is the lower limit side overlap, and is the area of the overlapping weight range (the area of the entire distribution is 1).

  For example, in the case of FIG. 3, the lower limit side of the distribution F (2) and the distribution F (1) do not overlap, and the lower limit side of the distribution F (3) does not overlap with the distribution F (2). Therefore, the overlap rates α (1) to α (3) for the three articles are all 0, and the number determination accuracy β (1) to β (3) are all 1 (100 percent).

Moreover, the lower limit side of the distribution F (4) of four articles is the weight,
3A + 4σ (3) ^{1/2 to} 4A-4σ (4) ^1/2
The area of the distribution F (4) in this weight range is obtained as the overlap rate α (4), and the number determination accuracy β (4) is obtained by calculating 1−α (4). 4) is determined.
Similarly, the overlap rate α (n) for each distribution is obtained, and the number determination accuracy β (n) is obtained from the overlap rate.

  The graph display means 42 graphs the relationship between the number obtained by the overlap degree calculation means 41 and the number determination accuracy β and displays it on the display 32.

  In this graph, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the number determination accuracy β decreases as the number n (horizontal axis) increases. Also, a graph using the degree of overlap α may be displayed instead of the number determination accuracy β.

  The determination condition setting means 43 is for arbitrarily setting the number determination condition in the range where the weight probability distributions for each number of articles obtained from the single unit information overlap, and here, the graph display means 42 displays the display 32. On the displayed graph, an arbitrary number determination accuracy β can be set as a determination condition by operating the operation unit 31.

  The determination weight range calculation means 44 calculates a determination weight range Hr that serves as a reference for the number determination based on the unit information and the number determination condition. As described above, the number set on the graph If the determination accuracy is βx, among the determination accuracy β (n) for each number, the maximum number determination accuracy β (m) not exceeding βx and the corresponding number m (determination upper limit number) are obtained.

  Then, determination weight ranges Hr (1) to Hr (m) for 1 to m articles are obtained as shown in FIG.

  That is, for the distributions F (1), F (2), and F (3) with the number determination accuracy β of 1, the weight ranges H (1), H (2), and H (3) that the distribution takes are determined. The working weight ranges are Hr (1), Hr (2), and Hr (3).

In addition, the distribution F (4), F (5), F (6),..., F (m) having a number determination accuracy β smaller than 1 is a distribution F (1) whose number is one less than the self-distribution F (n). n-1) is greater than the upper limit value A (n-1) + 4σ (n-1) ^{1/2 of the} weight range, and the upper limit value A (n) + 4σn ^{1/2 of the} self-distribution F (n). The following range is determined as the determination weight range Hr (n).

  Further, the recommended supply number calculating means 45 calculates the maximum number that can be determined based on the set determination condition and is easy to obtain as the recommended supply number P for each hopper 21.

  The recommended supply number P is calculated based on the upper limit number m, the target combination number K, the combination target hopper number u, and the like.

  For example, if only the combination of the numbers is considered, if the target combination number K is 36 and the combination target hopper number u is 4, it is most efficient to supply nine articles per hopper, but the upper limit of the number determination When the number m is 8, it is not possible to determine the number of nine supplied articles under the above conditions.

  Therefore, in this case, setting the recommended supply number P to 6, for example, and setting the combination target hopper number u to 6 makes it possible to achieve both number determination and efficiency.

  In other words, the recommended supply number P is a maximum number such that the remainder becomes 0 or a very small value when the target combination number K is divided by a number equal to or less than the upper limit number m for the number determination. The combination target hopper number u is obtained.

  The recommended supply number display means 46 displays the calculated recommended supply number P on the same screen as the graph of the display 32 as shown in FIG.

  Therefore, the operator can intuitively grasp the relationship between the number determination accuracy and the number on the graph displayed on the display 32, and if the arbitrary number determination accuracy is set on the graph, the determination accuracy is maintained. The maximum number of articles supplied can be confirmed.

  Further, by this number determination accuracy setting operation, the determination weight range Hr for determining the number is set in the number determination means 35 and the recommended supply number P is set in the supply control means 39.

  Then, after the other parameters necessary for weighing are set, when the operation mode is entered, articles are supplied from the supply device 22 to each hopper 21 and their weight values are detected, respectively. The result is input to the means 35, and the determination result is input to the combination selecting means 36 together with the weight value.

  The combination selection means 36 performs a combination operation on the number and weight of articles accommodated in the hopper 21, selects a combination that falls within the target weight range and the target number range, and outputs the selection result to the non-defective product discharge means 37. Then, the articles selected for the combination are discharged to the collector 24.

  Further, a new article is supplied from the corresponding supply device 22 to the hopper 21 that is empty after the article is discharged, and the weight detection process, the number determination process, the combination selection process, and the discharge process are repeated in the same manner as described above. The target amount of articles will be discharged sequentially.

  For example, when the number of hoppers determined to be over goods reaches a predetermined number, the over goods discharge means 38 discharges the articles from the hopper 21 and positions different from the non-defective products via the collector 24 and the sorting mechanism 24a. To be discharged.

  As described above, in this combination weighing device 20, a means for arbitrarily setting the number determination condition including a range in which the weight probability distributions overlap, and a determination weight serving as a reference for the number determination based on the set condition. And a means for calculating the range, so that the number can be determined under conditions freely set by the operator.

  In addition, the relationship between the number and the degree of overlap of the distribution is obtained and displayed in a graph, and the judgment condition for the number can be set on the graph, so the judgment condition setting operation can be easily and intuitively performed. Can be done.

  Further, since the recommended supply number for each hopper is calculated and displayed based on the determination condition, the target of the supply number of articles with respect to the set determination condition is accurately known, and adjustment of the supply device 22 is facilitated. Can be done.

Overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention Main part configuration diagram of the embodiment Weight probability distribution diagram for explaining the operation of the main part of the embodiment Figure showing an example of the display screen

Explanation of symbols

  20 …… Combination weighing device, 21 …… Hopper, 22 …… Supply device, 23 …… Weighing device, 24 …… Collector, 30 …… Controller, 31 …… Operating unit, 32 …… Display, 33 …… Control device 34... Weight calculation means 35... Quantity determination means 36... Combination selection means 37 37 Good product discharge means 38 38 Over discharge means 39 39 Supply control means 40. Information setting means 41... Duplicate degree value calculating means 42... Graph display means 43 .. Determination condition setting means 44... Determination weight range calculating means 45. Recommended supply number display

Claims (4)

A plurality of hoppers (21) capable of accommodating and discharging articles;
Weighing means (23, 34) for detecting the weight of the articles accommodated in the hopper,
Unit information setting means (40) for setting the average weight and standard deviation of a single item to be weighed as unit information;
Determination condition setting means (43) for setting a number determination condition in a range where weight probability distributions for each number of articles obtained from the single information overlap.
A determination weight range calculation means (44) for calculating a determination weight range for the number determination based on the single unit information and the number determination condition;
Number determination means (35) for determining the number of articles accommodated in the hopper based on the determination weight range calculated by the determination weight range calculation means and the weight value detected by the weighing means;
Combination selection means (36) for selecting a combination in which at least the number of combinations falls within a predetermined target range from among the combinations of articles whose number has been determined by the number determination means;
A combination weighing device comprising: discharge means (37) for discharging articles selected in combination by the combination selection means from the hopper. An overlap degree value calculating means (41) for obtaining a relationship between the number of articles and a value representing the degree of overlap of the weight probability distribution for each piece from the single information;
Graph display means (42, 32) for displaying the relationship obtained by the overlap degree value calculation means in a graph;
2. The combination weighing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number determination condition setting unit is configured to set an arbitrary degree value on the graph displayed by the graph display unit as the determination condition. A recommended supply number calculating means (45) for calculating a recommended supply number of articles to the hopper based on the determination condition;
The combination weighing device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising recommended supply number display means (46, 32) for displaying the recommended supply number calculated by the recommended supply number calculation means. A supply device (22) for supplying articles to the plurality of hoppers;
The combination weighing device according to claim 3, further comprising a supply control means (39) for controlling the supply device so that the number of articles supplied to each hopper becomes the recommended supply number.

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