JPH1191702A - Work positioning device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To accurately position an eye drop container as a work. SOLUTION: The present invention relates to a positioning device for a work 1 having a projecting portion 2 projecting outward from a main body 3, and a first holding means 5 for holding the main body along a first direction. Second holding means 6 for holding the protruding portion along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and a main body portion from a third direction perpendicular to the first and second directions. Or, it is provided with an abutting means 15 that abuts on the protruding portion.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a work positioning device, and more particularly to a work positioning device capable of holding an eye drop container as a work at an accurate position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The present applicant has previously proposed a method and an apparatus for sterilizing an eye drop container using ozone water (Japanese Patent Application No. 9-6047).
Issue 2). This holds a plurality of molded plastic containers in an aligned state, inserts nozzles into those containers, forcibly fills with ozone water, and immerses the containers in ozone water, thereby cleaning the inner and outer surfaces of the containers. It is to sterilize. Particularly in the case of eye drops containers, the mouth of the container is small, and ozone water often does not penetrate into the container due to surface tension only by immersing the container in ozone water. If the nozzle is forcibly filled with ozone water in advance, the inner surface of the container can be completely sterilized.

After that, the container enters a washing / drying process while being kept in an aligned state, and drains ozone water therein,
Washing with water and drying with warm air are sequentially performed. Here, when cleaning and drying the inside of the container, a nozzle is also inserted into the container and water or hot air is blown out. Thus, the inner and outer surfaces of the container are sterilized, washed and dried, and the contents can be stored.

[0004]

The above series of processing is line processing. Therefore, each processing is performed in the middle of the line, and the containers are transferred to the processing device at each processing position while being sequentially transported. Therefore, the containers are transferred a plurality of times while passing through all the processes. At this time, the containers need to be kept at the correct positions to prevent the containers from falling off and to improve the transport efficiency. Also, since it is necessary to accurately insert the nozzle into the small mouth of the container, accurate holding of the container, in other words, accurate positioning of the container on the container holder is a very important theme.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a device for positioning a work having a projecting portion projecting outward from a main body, wherein the first holding device holds the main body along a first direction. Means, and the second protrusion perpendicular to the first direction.
And a contacting means for contacting the main body or the protruding portion from a third direction perpendicular to the first and second directions.

According to the above configuration, the first holding means, the second
The workpiece can be positioned in the first direction, the second direction, and the third direction by the holding means and the contact means.

[0007] The work may be a hollow eye drop container, and the projection may define a mouth of the container, and may further include a nozzle inserted into the mouth.

[0008]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a work positioning apparatus and a work positioning method according to the present invention. Here, the work is an eye drop container 1, and its shape is various as shown in FIG. 2 other than that shown in FIG. The container 1 is a hollow plastic container which is symmetrical left and right and has a predetermined thickness in the front-rear direction. The container 1 is integrally formed of a body part 3 (main body part) serving as a storage part for eye drops as contents, and a neck part 2 (projection part) projecting upward from the body part 3. The neck portion 2 defines the opening 4 of the container 1, but since the opening is small, it is necessary to insert a nozzle when filling with ozone water or the like as described above. The neck 2
Is fitted with a cap when it becomes a product after eye drop injection.

Hereinafter, the positioning device of the present embodiment will be described together with the description of the method of positioning the container 1. Referring to FIG. 1, first, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), in the present apparatus, a body gripper 5 (first holding means) which holds the body portion 3 of the container 1 and conveys it from a previous process. And a neck gripper 6 (second holding means) for holding the neck 2 of the conveyed container 1. Body gripper 5
The neck gripper 6 can move up, down, left, and right by an actuator (not shown), and has main bodies 7, 8, and a pair of movable claws 9, 10 movably provided on the main bodies 7, 8, respectively. .

The movable claws 9 of the body gripper 5 are arranged in a pair (only one is shown) in the front-rear direction (the thickness direction of the paper) which is the first direction, and can be opened and closed along the front-rear direction.
The body 3 of the container 1 is sandwiched from the front-back direction or the thickness direction. However, the holding force at this time is not so strong, and if a certain amount or more of force is applied to the container 1, the container 1 can slide while being sandwiched between the movable claws 9.
The container 1 is positioned in the front-rear direction by this pinching. The movable claw 9 is opened and closed by a cylinder or the like (not shown).

Next, in the neck gripper 6, both movable claws 10 are rotatably connected to the main body 8 via pins 11. Thereby, the movable claw 10 can be opened and closed along the left-right direction which is the second direction perpendicular to the front-back direction. The movable claw 10 may be opened and closed by sliding in the horizontal direction. Here, the container 1 is a neck 2
Are arranged above. The neck gripper 6 is located above the container 1 and has a movable claw 10 extending downward.
Nip the neck 2 of the container 1 from left and right. As a result, even if the container 1 has a rotational deviation about the front-rear axis, it is corrected, and the container 1 is completely upright and positioned in the left-right direction.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the state in which the neck portion 2 is clamped. As can be seen, a V-shaped groove for accurately positioning the cylindrical neck portion 2 is provided inside the movable claw 10. 12 are provided. Thereby, the inclination of the neck portion 2 and thus the container 1 is completely prevented. The holding force at this time is almost the same as that of the body gripper 5.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the nozzle 13 which has been waiting above is inserted into the container 1. The insertion of the nozzle 13 is automatically performed by raising the neck gripper 6. That is, the neck gripper 6 can relatively move only in the vertical direction with respect to the downward nozzle 13 and the base 14 to which the upper end is fixed. Therefore, the neck portion 2 of the container 1 is placed in the aforementioned V-shaped groove 12 of the neck gripper 6.
Is inserted, the insertion is carried out by simply raising the neck gripper 6. Before ascending, the movable claw 9 of the body gripper 5 is opened while the container 1 is held by the neck gripper 6, and the container 1 is released.
Is replaced by the neck gripper 6. Thus, when the neck portion 2 is positioned by the V-shaped groove 12, the nozzle 1
3 is easy to insert, and the V-shaped groove 12 or the nozzle 1
By 3, positioning along or around the front-rear axis and the left-right axis of the container 1 is achieved at once.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), the neck gripper 6 and the container 1 are maintained while the above-mentioned nozzle inserted state is maintained.
Is horizontally moved together with the base 14, and is positioned above the positioning table 15 (contact means) which stands by at another position. The positioning table 15 is completely fixed to the apparatus frame 16 and does not move. The positioning table 15 has an upper surface 17 formed horizontally and can be brought into contact with a bottom surface 18 of the container 1. However, at this time, the container 1 is still floating.

When the movable claw 10 of the neck gripper 6 is opened as shown in FIG. 1D, the container 1 is released and falls or sits on the positioning table 15. Thus container 1
Of the container 1 is in contact with the upper surface 17 of the positioning table 15 so that the container 1
In the vertical direction, which is the direction of Since the mouth 4 of the container 1 is slightly larger in diameter than the nozzle 13, the container 1 can be dropped when the movable claw 10 is opened, and the nozzle 13 serves as a guide at the time of drop. Displacement and separation are prevented.

Thus, the positioning is completed in the three axial directions of front, rear, left, right, up and down. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1 (e), the movable claw 10 is closed by slightly lowering the neck gripper 6, and the container 1
Again. As a result, the relative position between the neck gripper 6 and the container 1 is determined, and the container 1 is kept held at the correct position by the neck gripper 6.

In this state, since the nozzle 13 is inserted, if ozone water, water, hot air or the like is jetted from the nozzle 13, the inner surface of the container 1 can be sterilized, drained, washed or dried, respectively. . However, these fluids are examples, and it is also possible to eject other fluids and execute other processes. The nozzle 1 is lowered by lowering the neck gripper 6.
It is also possible to remove the container 3 from the container 1 and move the neck gripper 6 to convey the container 1 to another position.

Since the container 1 is accurately positioned in this way, even if the container 1 is transferred a plurality of times during the line processing, the container 1 is prevented from dropping off in the middle and the transfer efficiency is greatly improved. Also, the insertion of the nozzle can be performed accurately and easily. In particular, since the eye drop container handled here has a shape that is difficult to stand on its own, a device and a method that can perform positioning while holding the container 1 as in the present invention are very effective.

Incidentally, as shown in FIG.
Is also provided with a V-shaped groove 19, because the container 1 having the pointed bottom shown in FIG. 2 (b) can be seated at an accurate position and direction. As described above, it is desirable that the shape of the positioning table 15 match the shape of the bottom of the container 1.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, when the container 1 is transferred between the two container holders, that is, the body gripper 5 and the neck gripper 6, the container 1 can be simultaneously positioned in the front, rear, left and right directions. This enables the delivery of the container 1 to an accurate position. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the positioning may be performed after the container 1 is once received.

Further, the vertical positioning of the container 1 shown in FIG. 1 (d) can be performed as follows. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, a step portion 20 that fits the neck portion 2 of the container 1 is formed inside the movable claw 10 of the neck gripper 6. In this manner, two downward surfaces of the movable claw 10, that is, the claw lower surface 21 and the step portion upper surface 22 are completed. Therefore, the nail lower surface 21 is placed on the shoulder 23 of the container 1 or the step upper surface 22.
Is brought into contact with the upper surface 24 of the neck portion of the container 1, the vertical position of the container 1 relative to the neck gripper 6 is determined. This can be achieved if the neck 2 is slidably held between the movable claws 10 as described above, the positioning table 15 is configured to be able to move up and down, and the container 1 is pushed up by raising this. Even in such a method, the container 1 can be accurately positioned. In this case, the nail lower surface 2
1. The step portion upper surface 22 and the positioning table 15 form the contact means of the present invention.

As described above, the present invention can adopt other embodiments, and the work can be other than the eye drop container.

[0024]

The present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) The work can be accurately positioned.

(2) Optimum for positioning the eye drop container.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process chart showing a positioning method by a positioning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing an eye drop container.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which a neck portion of the eye drop container is sandwiched.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a seating state of the eye drop container.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 eye dropper container 2 neck part 3 body part 5 body gripper 6 neck gripper 15 positioning table

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A device for positioning a work having a projecting portion projecting outward from a main body, comprising: first holding means for holding the main body along a first direction; A second holding means for holding along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and a third holding means for holding the third direction perpendicular to the first and second directions.
And a contact means for contacting the main body portion or the protruding portion from the direction of the workpiece. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the work is a hollow eye dropper container, and the projecting portion defines a mouth of the container, and further comprises a nozzle inserted into the mouth.