JPH04112119A - Parts feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the feeding capability and exclude the parts not aligned in the preset attitude by providing an air cylinder controlling the stroke and timing of vertical movement for the lifting power source of a scraping plate and a parts selecting notch section on an aligning rail. CONSTITUTION:Parts stored in a bucket 13 are scraped by a scraping plate 15 when an air cylinder 16 is lifted, and they are dropped on a parts aligning rail 18 and aligned while being advanced on the rail 18. Parts other than the preset parts and parts not in the preset alignment state are dropped from a notch section and again put into the bucket 13. When all the parts on the rail 18 are conveyed in a preset time, the scraping plate 15 is again lifted to drop parts on the rail 18. The scraping plate 15 of a parts feeder is vertically moved by the air cylinder 16, the stroke of the vertical movement can be increased, the parts storage capacity of the bucket 13 can be expanded, the lift cycle and stroke of the scraping plate 15 can be adjusted, and the scraping efficiency is improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention has a large supply capacity, but it is possible to exclude parts that are not aligned in a predetermined posture or dissimilar parts during alignment. Regarding parts feeders that are capable of

(Prior art) Generally, a manufacturing line that assembles machines and other equipment often uses many parts such as bolts and nuts, but in order to assemble the parts efficiently, the parts must be aligned in a predetermined position. It is hoped that the company will provide the necessary information.

Conventionally, a vibrating bowl type or scraping type parts feeder has been used as a device for arranging and feeding parts in this manner.

A vibrating bowl type parts feeder stores parts in a bowl that has a parts guide path that slopes along the inner surface, and applies vibration along the parts guide path to this bowl using an exciter to move the parts according to the vibration. The parts are moved upward on the parts guide path, and are arranged and supplied to a conveyance path connected to the upper part of the parts guide path.

Further, the scraping type parts feeder is constructed as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.

That is, there is a bucket 83 for storing parts with an open top and a bottom plate 82 that is spaced from one side wall 81 and slopes toward the side wall 81 of the bracket, and a bucket 83 that is vertically movable and that is disposed below the side wall 81. A scraping plate 85 having a scraping surface 84 and a crank groove 86 formed horizontally at the bottom thereof and a crank pin 87 at the tip of a crank arm 88 fixed to a rotational drive shaft 90 are engaged with the crank groove 86. a motor 89 that moves the scraping plate 85 up and down via a speed reducer, and a parts alignment rail 91 that is arranged along the outer side of the upper end of the side wall 81 and that aligns the parts supplied by the scraping plate 85 in a predetermined posture. , and a vibrator 92 that vibrates the parts alignment rail 91 at a predetermined frequency to move the parts forward and align them.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, these parts feeders have the following problems.

In other words, in a vibrating bowl type parts feeder,
Since the vibrator directly vibrates the bowl, there are disadvantages in that the noise is extremely loud and the supply capacity is low.

Also, does the rake-type parts feeder have the advantage of being less noisy, since it is necessary to raise the rake plate and feed the pieces after there are no parts on the parts alignment rail? There is a problem in that the lifting cycle time is slow and the supply rate is not fast enough.

In addition, the vertical stroke of the raking plate cannot be increased, so the capacity of the bucket cannot be increased, and the length of the crank arm is constant, so the vertical stroke is constant whether the parts are full or small. Therefore, there is a problem that there is a lot of unnecessary movement and the efficiency of raking is low.

Further, a scraping plate 8 is provided to receive the horizontal force of the scraping plate.
It is necessary to provide sliding members 93 vertically on both sides of 5, and to provide a guide member 94 at a position in contact with the sliding members 93.
Coupled with the structure of the motor and arm, there were also problems in that the device was complex, had many adjustment elements, and was heavy.

Furthermore, in the scraping-type parts feeder, depending on the shape of the parts to be handled, for example,
They are arranged as shown in (d).

Here, Fig. 7(a) and (b) show the case where the parts are not aligned in the predetermined posture, Fig. 7(c) shows the case where different types of parts are mixed, and Fig. 7(d) shows the case where the parts are Each case is shown when they are arranged in a predetermined posture.

In such a case, even if parts are supplied, only the parts shown in FIG. 7(d) can be used immediately, resulting in a substantially low supply capacity.

The present invention was made in response to these circumstances, and
The stroke and timing of the vertical movement of the raking plate can be controlled, increasing the capacity of the bucket to improve raking efficiency, and parts that are not aligned in a predetermined posture and parts of different types can be selected and excluded. Another object of the present invention is to provide a scraping-type parts feeder that has a simple mechanism and is lightweight.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The parts feeder of the present invention includes a parts storage bucket with an open top having a side wall that is substantially horizontally linear at the bottom and a bottom plate that slopes toward the bottom of the side wall. a raking plate disposed along the lower part of the side wall of the bucket and having a raking surface on the upper part thereof and which can be raised and lowered to use the raking surface to scrape up parts stored in the bucket; An air cylinder that moves up and down between the bottom plate of the bucket and the upper end of the side wall, and an air cylinder that is arranged along the side wall outside the upper end of the side wall and drops dissimilar parts or parts arranged in an unspecified posture at at least one place. The present invention is characterized by having a parts alignment rail having a notch that allows the parts to be aligned, and a vibration exciter that vibrates the parts alignment rail to move the parts stored on the rail forward in one direction.

In the present invention, the stroke and timing of the vertical movement of the scraping plate can be easily determined by providing a solenoid valve in the air cylinder and controlling this solenoid valve with an ON-OFF timer or the like.

(Function) Parts such as bolts stored in the bucket are scraped up by a scraping board that moves up and down with an air cylinder, and then dropped onto the parts alignment rail, where they are pushed forward by the thrust generated by the vibration of the exciter. While being fed, they are arranged in a predetermined posture. When the part sorting notch is reached, parts that are not aligned in the predetermined orientation or different types of parts are removed from the parts alignment rail, and only the predetermined parts that are aligned in the predetermined orientation are removed. transported. The fallen parts fall back into the bucket, are put into the process of being re-aligned, and are finally aligned in a predetermined position.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 5.

In this embodiment, the top-open bucket 13 for parts storage has a side wall 11 with a linear lower part that stands up almost vertically, and a bottom plate 12 that slopes downward toward the bottom of the side wall 11. It has a shape in which a side wall 11 is provided on a vertical cut surface of a cylindrical body which is divided into quarters along an axis in a vertical and horizontal plane. A scraping plate 15 is arranged along the side wall 11, and a scraping surface 14 inclined toward the side wall 11 is provided on the upper surface of the scraping plate 15.
have. This scraping plate 15 is raised and lowered by an air cylinder 16, 16 so that its scraping surface 14 reciprocates between the upper end of the side wall 11 and a lower position along the side wall 11. The solenoid valve 22 is controlled by a pre-programmed 0N-OFF timer 21 so that the lowering position of the air cylinder 16 is higher when a large amount of parts are stored, and lowered as the number of parts decreases. It is adjusted by

This side wall 11 is located outside the upper end of the side wall 11 of the bucket 13.
A parts alignment rail 18 is arranged along. This parts alignment rail 18 is formed with a notch 17 at least in one place for dropping dissimilar parts or parts that are not in a predetermined alignment state. This notch 17
As shown in FIG. 5, there are two parts alignment rails 18.
Of these, only the rail on the bucket side is cut out, and the rail on the opposite side is an L-shaped cross-sectional rail with the side surface in contact with the part inclined toward the side opposite to the cutout portion 17,
Only the parts that are aligned in a tilted and touching attitude along the side surface pass through the notch 17 without falling off, and all other parts are caused to fall off the part alignment rail 18 by the notch 17. It has become.

Note that the shape, size, and number of the notches 17 can be changed as appropriate depending on the purpose of sorting.

A vibrator 19 is connected to the parts alignment rail 18, which applies vibration to move the mounted parts forward toward one end.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, parts are put into the parts storage bucket 13,
When the power switch is turned on, the vibrator 19 is driven to apply vibration to the parts alignment rail 18 to move the parts forward toward one end, and the ON-OFF timer 21 is activated at the predetermined timing shown in FIG. The solenoid valve 22 is controlled, and the air cylinder 16 is accordingly controlled.
moves up and down. The 0N-OFF timer 21 indicates that when a part is dropped onto the parts alignment rail 18 or is carried out from the parts alignment rail 18, a rising operation is performed, and the height of the parts in the bagent 13 is increased by raising the parts. The solenoid valve 22 is controlled so that the movement pitch during the descent becomes longer by the same amount.

The parts stored in the bucket 13 are stored in the air cylinder 1
When the parts 6 are raised, they are lifted up by the scraping plate 15 and dropped onto the parts alignment rail 18, and are aligned while moving forward on the parts alignment rail 18. Parts other than the predetermined parts and parts that are not in the predetermined alignment fall from the notch and are thrown into the bucket 13 again. After a predetermined time, when the parts on the parts alignment rail 18 are removed, the scraping plate 15 rises again to drop the parts onto the parts alignment rail 18.

As described above, in the parts feeder of this embodiment, the vertical movement of the scraping plate is performed by an air cylinder, so the stroke of the vertical movement can be increased, and therefore the parts storage capacity of the bucket can be increased. can. In addition, since the timing of controlling the solenoid valve 22 is controlled by the 0N-OFF timer 21 programmed in advance, the cycle and stroke of the raising and lowering operation of the scraping plate 15 can be adjusted, and the scraping plate 15 is wasted. There is no movement, and the raking efficiency is good.

Furthermore, since the parts alignment rail 18 is provided with the notch 17 for parts sorting, only the predetermined parts aligned in a predetermined posture are supplied, resulting in good supply efficiency.

In the above embodiment, an example was explained in which the solenoid valve of the air cylinder was controlled by an ON-OFF timer, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment.
It is also possible to detect the amount of parts by the weight of the bucket or the height of the stored parts, and control the lowering position of the air cylinder according to this amount.

C Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the parts feeder of the present invention uses an air cylinder that can control the stroke and timing of vertical movement as the power source for raising and lowering the scraping plate, thereby reducing waste of the scraping plate. There is no movement and the raking efficiency is good. Furthermore, since the stroke of the raking plate can be made large, the bucket can be made large and the amount of parts stored can be increased, and since the amount of parts to be raked is also large, the raking capacity is high in combination with the above-mentioned good raking efficiency.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since the parts alignment rail is provided with a notch for parts sorting, only predetermined parts aligned in a predetermined posture can be selected and supplied to the outside.

Furthermore, since a mechanically complicated and heavy lifting plate elevating device and a complicated parts sorting device are not used, the device is simple and low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially omitted sectional side view of the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a partially omitted front view of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a partially omitted front view of the embodiment of the present invention. A partially omitted plan view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a parts sorting notch, FIG. 6 is a graph showing the control timing of the solenoid valve of the air cylinder, and FIG. 7(a) , (b), (c), and (d) are examples of the postures of parts arranged on the alignment rail of a scraping type parts feeder according to the conventional technical idea, and Fig. 8 is related to the conventional technical idea. FIG. 9 is a partially omitted cross-sectional side view of the scraping-type parts feeder, and FIG. 9 is a partially omitted front view of the scraping-type parts feeder according to the conventional technical concept. 11......Side wall 12...Bucket bottom plate 13...Bucket 14......Rake surface 15... ..... Raising plate 16 ..... Air cylinder 17 ..... Notch section 18 ..... Parts alignment rail 19 ...・・・
..... Vibrator 21 ..... 0N-OFF timer 22 ...
・・・・・・Solenoid valve 23・・・・・・Parts

Claims (1)

[Claims] A bucket for parts storage with an open upper part having a side wall whose lower part forms a substantially horizontal straight line and a bottom plate that slopes toward the lower part of the side wall, and a scraping surface at the upper part disposed along the lower part of the side wall of the bucket. , a lifting plate that can be raised and lowered to scrape up the parts stored in the bucket on the scraping surface; an air cylinder that lifts and lowers the scraping plate between the bottom plate of the bucket and the upper end of the side wall; and an upper end of the side wall. A parts alignment rail arranged on the outside along the side wall and having a notch for dropping dissimilar parts or parts aligned in an unspecified posture at at least one location, and a part alignment rail that is vibrated and stored. A parts feeder comprising: a vibration exciter that moves the parts fed in one direction.