U.S. patent application number 11/181421 was filed with the patent office on 2006-01-19 for contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus.
This patent application is currently assigned to TOYO JIDOKI CO., LTD. Invention is credited to Hachiro Kawamura.
Application Number | 20060010833 11/181421 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35064762 |
Filed Date | 2006-01-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060010833 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kawamura; Hachiro |
January 19, 2006 |
Contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus
Abstract
A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for reversing a
vessel accommodating the contents to be filled into a packaging
container from a upright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby
dropping downward and filling the contents into a container
disposed underneath. A vessel is held at one end of a vessel
holding member that is rotated around an axis. The axis is situated
at a position higher than the center in the vertical direction of
the vessel supplied to the gripping stop position where the vessel
is gripped in a upright state by the holding member.
Inventors: |
Kawamura; Hachiro;
(Iwakuni-shi, JP) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Thomas M. Galgano;GALGANO & BURKE, LLP
Suite 135
300 Rabro Drive
Hauppauge
NY
11788
US
|
Assignee: |
TOYO JIDOKI CO., LTD
|
Family ID: |
35064762 |
Appl. No.: |
11/181421 |
Filed: |
July 14, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
53/244 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65B 1/06 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
053/244 |
International
Class: |
B65B 5/10 20060101
B65B005/10 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jul 15, 2004 |
JP |
2004-208361 |
Claims
1. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for reversing a
contents-filling vessel accommodating contents to be filled from an
upright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby dropping downward
and filling the contents into a packaging container disposed
underneath, said apparatus comprising a vessel holding member for
holding said vessel supplied to a holding position, said vessel
holding member being designed to rotate in a vertical plane around
a center of rotation, and wherein the position of said center of
rotation is set higher than the position of the center in the
vertical direction of said vessel positioned at said holding
position.
2. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
1, wherein said holding member comprises a pair of gripping members
capable of approaching to and separating away from each other to
grip and to release said vessel, wherein said apparatus further
comprises: a reversing device including a rotating device equipped
with a main rotating member rotatable around said center of
rotation, said rotating device rotating intermittently the main
rotating member in one direction and stopping the main rotating
member at a first and a second positions, and said gripping members
attached to said rotating device, said gripping members being
designed to stop at a gripping stop position where said gripping
members can grip a vessel supplied in said upright state when said
main rotating member stops at the first stop position, and to stop
at a reversal stop position where said vessel is held in said
nearly inverted state when said main rotating member stops at the
second positions; a reversal stop position regulating device for
regulating said reversal stop position of said gripping members; an
empty vessel carrying-out device provided at an empty vessel
discharging position on the way along which said gripping members
return from said reversal stop position to said gripping stop
position, said empty vessel carrying-out device receiving an empty
vessel from which the contents to be filled have been ejected and
transferring it to downstream process; and a gripping member
opening/closing apparatus for making said gripping members close to
grip a vessel at said gripping stop position and for making said
gripping members open at said empty vessel discharging position,
thereby discharging the empty vessel towards said empty vessel
carrying-out device.
3. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
2, wherein said main rotating member comprises a main rotating
shaft rotating intermittently in one direction every 180 degrees,
wherein said rotating device further comprises a supporting shaft
supported by said main rotating shaft in parallel to said main
rotating shaft in an axial direction, and designed to be
reciprocally rotatable around an axis thereof between an initial
position and a rotated position, wherein said contents-filling
vessel reversing apparatus further comprises a supporting shaft
rotating device for rotating said supporting shaft, and wherein
said reversing stop position regulating device regulates said
rotated position of said supporting shaft, and said pair of
gripping members are mounted on one end of said supporting
shaft.
4. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
3, wherein said supporting shaft is formed to be hollow to have a
through hole, wherein said gripping member opening/closing device
comprises a sliding shaft inserted through said through hole of
said supporting shaft and being movable in an axial direction
thereof, said sliding shaft being connected at one end thereof to
said gripping members, and wherein said gripping members are opened
and closed interlockingly with the axial direction movement of said
sliding shaft.
5. A contents-filing vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
3, wherein said supporting shaft rotating device is equipped with a
grooved cam securely positioned with an axis thereof coinciding
with the axis of said main rotating shaft, a lever fixed to the
other end of said supporting shaft and a cam roller mounted on the
lever so as to roll in and move along a groove formed in said
grooved cam, wherein, in a predetermined range in said groove
extending in the opposite directions from a position corresponding
to said rotated position, at least a radius of curvature of an
inner wall of said groove is made shorter than a radius of
curvature of the the inner wall in a rest range in the groove so
that a width of the groove in said predetermined range is larger
than a width of the groove in the rest range, and wherein said
reversal stop regulating device is provided with a positioning
stopper which abuts against said lever to position the lever at
said reversal stop position, and a stopper position regulating
device for regulating the position of the stopper.
6. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
4, wherein said supporting shaft rotating device is equipped with a
grooved cam securely positioned with an axis thereof coinciding
with the axis of said main rotating shaft, a lever fixed to the
other end of said supporting shaft and a cam roller mounted on the
lever so as to roll in and move along a groove formed in said
grooved cam, wherein, in a predetermined range in said groove
extending in the opposite directions from a position corresponding
to said rotated position, at least a radius of curvature of an
inner wall of said groove is made shorter than a radius of
curvature of the the inner wall in a rest range in the groove so
that a width of the groove in said predetermined range is larger
than a width of the groove in the rest range, and wherein said
reversal stop regulating device is provided with a positioning
stopper which abuts against said lever to position the lever at
said reversal stop position, and a stopper position regulating
device for regulating the position of the stopper.
7. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
3, wherein two said supporting shafts are provided symmetrically
with respect to the axis of said main rotating shaft, and each of
said supporting shafts is provided with said pair of gripping
members.
8. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
4, wherein two said supporting shafts are provided symmetrically
with respect to the axis of said main rotating shaft, and each of
said supporting shafts is provided with said pair of gripping
members.
9. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to claim
5, wherein two said supporting shafts are provided symmetrically
with respect to the axis of said main rotating shaft, and each of
said supporting shafts is provided with said pair of gripping
members.
10. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according to
claim 6, wherein two said supporting shafts are provided
symmetrically with respect to the axis of said main rotating shaft,
and each of said supporting shafts is provided with said pair of
gripping members.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to a contents-filling vessel
reversing apparatus for use in a bag packaging machine, namely an
apparatus for reversing a vessel accommodating contents to be
filled into a container such as, for example, a packaging bag. More
specifically, the present invention relates to a contents-filling
vessel reversing apparatus for reversing a vessel accommodating
contents to be filled into a container from a upright state to an
inverted state, thereby dropping downward and filling the contents
into a packaging container disposed underneath, when foods or the
like are packaged in the packaging container.
[0003] 2. Prior Art
[0004] In the automatic packaging of foods and the like, filling of
contents is usually carried out as follows, namely, vessels
accommodating a predetermined amount of contents such as foods or
the like to be filled in a packaging container are successively
supplied in a upright state, this vessel in the upright state is
held by a holding device and the holding device is rotated in a
vertical plane around a predetermined center of rotation to reverse
the vessel into an inverted state, thereby dropping downward and
filling the contents into a packaging container disposed
underneath. An example of this kind of the apparatus for reversing
a vessel is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Non-examined Patent
Application No. 8-282602.
[0005] With the reversing apparatus disclosed in this publication,
a vessel in an upright state is supplied to a vessel accommodation
part of the reversing device, this reversing device is rotated 180
degrees around a rotating shaft to reverse the vessel, and the
reversing device is once stopped at this position to drop the
vessel downward. The vessel collides with and received by a vessel
receiving table disposed below, thereby ejecting downwardly the
contents accommodated in it.
[0006] One of alternatives to the arrangement mentioned above is to
grip the vessel on the outer circumference thereof or the
upper/lower ends thereof by a pair of gripping members capable of
approaching to and separating away from each other.
[0007] In either case, a vessel is reversed by rotating the holding
members or gripping members around an axis. For ejecting the
contents from a vessel, most of the apparatuses or devices in the
prior art comprises arrangements similar to the arrangements
disclosed in Japanese Non-examined Patent Application No. 8-282602
where a vessel is discharged and collides with a stopper to eject
the contents by making use of the impact caused. There are also
some cases where a vessel is not discharged when the holding member
is rotated 180 degrees and stopped, while the contents are ejected
from the vessel due to a shock caused at the stopping. Even in
these cases, the vessel is dropped downwardly after ejection of the
contents and stopped and received by a stopper for collection.
[0008] In the meantime, with a reversing apparatus of this kind,
there is a subject of how to set the rotating speed of the holding
members or the like used therein. In other words, if the rotating
speed is low, the contents in the vessel may run out when the
vessel is tilted to a position where the mouth thereof faces
obliquely and downwardly during the rotation. This phenomenon may
be caused easily especially with solid materials so-called bulky
substances and becomes remarkable as the amount of the contents to
be filled increases. If the rotating speed is increased in order to
prevent this problem and to improve work efficiency, the contents
accommodated in the vessel may fly out from the vessel at an
undesired position during the rotation in the tangential direction
of the rotary trajectory due to increased centrifugal force.
[0009] Other disadvantages attributable to high-speeding have also
been found. Namely, if the rotating speed is increased, an impact
caused by collision of the vessel with the stopper becomes great,
accordingly resulting in chipping of the vessel and in mixing of
fragments into the packaging container. The noise problem due to
collision is also serious.
[0010] According to Japanese Utility Model Registration No.
2539246, a vessel is held on the outer end of an arm and the arm is
stopped suddenly when rotated 180 degrees, thereby discharging the
contents from the vessel due to inertia force. If the contents to
be filled are solid matters, however, the same problems as
experienced with the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Non-examined
Patent Application No. 8-282602 referred to above will arise. In
addition, if a higher speed is employed for contents to be filled
with a higher viscosity, they will not drop directly underneath
when the arm is stopped, but there is a tendency that they are
discharged in a direction along with the rotary trajectory of the
arm, which results in the problems that the contents to be filled
are adhered to the side wall of a guide.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] The present invention is made in light of the problems with
the prior art as mentioned above. An object of the present
invention is to present a contents-filling vessel reversing
apparatus by which processing capability can be improved without
causing flying out of contents from a vessel even if the rotating
speed of the holding member is increased.
[0012] It is also another object of the present invention to solve
the problems such as chipping of the vessels and noise generation
resulting from high-speeding as seen in the prior art by adopting
arrangements for ejecting contents from the vessel without causing
a collision of the vessel directly with a stopper.
[0013] Among the problems seen in the conventional apparatuses;
regarding the problem of flying out of contents from the vessel,
the inventors of the present invention paid attention to the fact
that, in the conventional apparatuses, the center of rotation of
the vessel gripping members is set to the same height as that of
the center of a vessel located at the holding position, and found
that this could be resolved by setting the center of rotation of
the vessel gripping members at a height higher than the center
position of the vessel located at the holding position. It has also
been found out that it is possible to solve the problems of
chipping of the vessels and noise generation by handing a vessel
over to a vessel carrying-out apparatus on the way of a process
when the holding member is returning back to the original position
for receiving a next vessel without dropping the vessel at the
position where the vessel is reversed.
[0014] More specifically, in order to solve the problems and to
accomplish the objects mentioned above, the present invention
presents a contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for
reversing a contents-filling vessel accommodating contents to be
filled from an upright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby
dropping downward and filling the contents into a packaging
container disposed underneath, said apparatus comprising [0015] a
vessel holding member for holding said vessel supplied to a holding
position, said vessel holding member being designed to rotate in a
vertical plane around a center of rotation, [0016] wherein the
position of said center of rotation is set higher than the position
of the center in the vertical direction of said vessel positioned
at said holding position.
[0017] With these features, the centrifugal force acting on the
vessel or the contents in the vessel during the reversing operation
is directed obliquely backward with regard to the direction of
movement of the vessel, and acts to force the contents toward the
bottom of the vessel, thereby preventing the contents from flying
out from the vessel. Therefore, even contents with low adhesion,
namely so-called bulky substance, can be dealt with at a high
rotational speed at which contents could fly out when the
conventional apparatus mentioned above is used. If desired, further
high-speeding is possible.
[0018] According to another embodiment of the invention, said
holding member comprises a pair of gripping members attached to the
rotating device and being capable of approaching to and separating
away from each other to grip and to release said vessel, and [0019]
said apparatus further comprises: [0020] a reversing device
including a rotating device equipped with a main rotating member
rotatable around said center of rotation, said rotating device
rotating intermittently the main rotating member in one direction
and stopping the main rotating member at a first and a second
positions, and said gripping members attached to said rotating
device, said gripping members being designed to stop at a gripping
stop position where said gripping members can grip a vessel
supplied in said upright state when said main rotating member stops
at the first stop position, and to stop at a reversal stop position
where said vessel is held in said nearly inverted state when said
main rotating member stops at the second position; [0021] a
reversal stop position regulating device for regulating said
reversal stop position of said gripping members; [0022] an empty
vessel carrying-out device provided at an empty vessel discharging
position on the way along which said gripping members return from
said reversal stop position to said gripping stop position, said
empty vessel carrying-out device receiving an empty vessel from
which the contents to be filled have been ejected and transferring
it to downstream process; and [0023] a gripping member
opening/closing apparatus for making said gripping members close to
grip a vessel at said gripping stop position and for making said
gripping members open at said empty vessel discharging position,
thereby discharging the empty vessel towards said empty vessel
carrying-out device.
[0024] In the apparatus with the compositions mentioned above, the
gripping members grip a vessel and rotate, and when the gripping
members stop at the reversal stop position, the vessel is in a
reversed state and stopped, thereby discharging the contents in the
vessel due to the inertia force. The empty vessel is still griped
by the gripping members even after it is reversed and the contents
is discharged, and is released towards the vessel carrying-out
device on the way returning to the gripping stop position.
Therefore, there is no direct collision of a vessel with a stopper
plate as observed in the prior art and problems of chipping of
vessels, entry of foreign matters into a packaging container and
deterioration of working environments do not occur.
[0025] Further, the reversal stop position can be regulated to any
desired position by the reversal stop position regulating device
and, therefore, it is possible to regulate the reversal stop
position according to properties and amount of the contents to be
filled, processing rate or the like to ensure accurate dropping of
the contents into a packaging container disposed directly
underneath.
[0026] According to another embodiment, the main rotating member
comprises a main rotating shaft rotating intermittently in one
direction every 180 degrees, and the rotating device further
comprises a supporting shaft supported by the main rotating shaft
in parallel to the main rotating shaft in an axial direction and
designed to be reciprocally rotatable around an axis thereof
between an initial position and a rotated position. The
contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus further comprises a
supporting shaft rotating device for rotating the supporting shaft.
The reversing stop position regulating device regulates the rotated
position of the supporting shaft, and the pair of gripping members
are mounted on one end of the supporting shaft.
[0027] With these compositions mentioned above, the supporting
shaft rotating device is designed to change the relative position
of the supporting shaft to the main rotating shaft in the direction
of rotation by turning the supporting shaft. Therefore, even when
two sets of gripping members are provided and these are rotated
intermittently every 180 degrees by the reversing device, it is
possible to change the reversal stop position while the gripping
stop position is fixed.
[0028] As noted, the supporting shaft is rotated during the
reversal operation. By setting appropriately the way of rotating of
the supporting shaft, for example by not tilting the vessel greatly
at the earlier stage of reversal and tilting the vessel rapidly and
greatly at the last end stage of reversal, depending on type,
properties, and amount of contents to be filled, it is possible to
prevent the contents from flying out from the vessel at an stage
earlier than desired.
[0029] According to another embodiment of the present invention,
the supporting shaft is formed to be hollow, and the gripping
member opening/closing device comprises a sliding shaft inserted
into the hollow section of the supporting shaft and movable in the
axial direction. The sliding shaft is connected at one end to the
gripping members, and the gripping members are opened and closed
interlockingly with the axial direction movement of the sliding
shaft.
[0030] According to the composition mentioned above where a sliding
shaft is disposed within a supporting shaft, peripheral arrangement
of the reversal mechanism of the apparatus can be made compact, and
ease of cleaning is improved.
[0031] According to another embodiment, the supporting shaft
rotating device is equipped with a grooved cam securely positioned
with an axis thereof coinciding with the axis of said main rotating
shaft, a lever fixed to the other end of said supporting shaft and
a cam roller mounted on the lever so as to roll in and move along a
groove formed in the grooved cam. Further, in a predetermined range
in the groove extending in the opposite directions from a position
corresponding to the rotated position of the supporting shaft, at
least a radius of curvature of an inner wall of said groove is made
shorter than a radius of curvature of the inner wall in a rest
range in the groove so that a width of the groove in said
predetermined range is larger than a width of the groove in the
rest range. Still further, the reversal stop regulating device is
provided with a positioning stopper which abuts against the lever
to position the lever at the reversal stop position, and a stopper
position regulating device for regulating the position of the
stopper.
[0032] According to the compositions mentioned above, it is
possible to change the reversal stop position only by adjusting the
position of the stopper, and the gripping stop position is
unchanged even when the reversal stop position is changed.
Therefore, the adjustment can be done easily.
[0033] According to yet another embodiment of the present
invention, two supporting shafts are provided symmetrically with
respect to the axis of the main rotating shaft, and each of the
supporting shafts is provided with a pair of the gripping members.
Therefore it is possible to improve processing capability of the
apparatus.
[0034] As noted above, according to the present invention, even in
the case the contents to be filled are ones with low adhesion,
namely so-called bulky substance, it is possible to prevent the
contents from flying out from the vessel during rotation even when
rotated at a high rotational speed, thereby improving processing
capability. With the conventional art mentioned above, when dealing
with relatively large amount of bulky contents, spilling out or
flying out of the contents happens at any rotational speed and
therefore, complete filling is not possible. According to the
present invention, however, filling of such a large amount of bulky
contents can be done surely. Besides, chipping of the vessel in use
can be prevented, thereby preventing entry of foreign matters into
the packaging container, and noise generation can be reduced,
thereby contributing to improvement of working environments.
Moreover, it is possible to drop, at the reversal position,
contents surely into a packaging container disposed underneath.
Regulations for this purpose can also be done easily.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0035] FIG. 1 is a partly sectioned front view showing a apparatus
for reversing a vessel accommodating contents to be filled
according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
[0036] FIG. 2 is a partly sectioned plan view thereof,
[0037] FIG. 3 is a partly sectioned right side view thereof,
[0038] FIG. 4 is a rear view showing the principal part of the
apparatus,
[0039] FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a stopper mechanism,
[0040] FIG. 6 is a right side view showing the principal part of
the stopper mechanism, and
[0041] FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing relationship between
the height of the center of rotation of the vessel and the height
of the center of the vessel.
DETAILED EXPLANATION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0042] Referring now to the drawings, a preferred embodiment of the
present invention will be explained hereinafter. FIG. 1 is a partly
sectioned front view showing a contents-filling vessel reversing
apparatus 1 (referred to simply as "apparatus" hereinafter) for
reversing a contents-filling vessel (referred to simply as "vessel"
hereinafter) accommodating contents to be filled according to a
preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a
sectional plan view, FIG. 3 is a partly sectioned side view, and
FIG. 4 is a rear view showing the principal part of the apparatus.
According to the present embodiment, two sets of mechanisms for
gripping and reversing a vessel Y are provided as will be described
hereinafter.
[0043] The apparatus 1 has a machinery mount 2. A stand 3 is
erected on the machinery mount 2, and a frame 4 in a nearly
box-shaped configuration is secured on the stand 3. Two vertical
wall portions 5, 6 are formed in parallel with and separated from
each other above and below at the lower part of the frame 4 as
viewed in FIG. 2. The walls form supporting parts 5, 6 for a main
rotating shaft 7. The main rotating shaft 7 is supported through
bearings 8, 8 disposed at the opposite ends thereof. Two through
holes are formed through the shaft 7 at right and left symmetrical
positions with respect to the center of the main rotating shaft 7.
Supporting shafts 9, 10 are inserted through the through holes,
respectively, and are rotatably supported by bearings 11 disposed
at the opposite ends of the main rotating shaft 7, respectively.
(For convenience of explanation, one shown at the left in FIG. 2 is
referred to as a first supporting shaft 9 while one shown at the
right is referred to as a second supporting shaft 10. When no
discrimination is needed or they are identified unmistakably,
however, they are simply referred to as supporting shaft 9 or
supporting shaft 10.) The supporting shafts 9, 10, and members
associated therewith and constructions thereof are identical.
Therefore, the following description mainly deals with the
supporting shaft 9 and the associated members only.
[0044] In the figures, the supporting shaft 9 and the associated
members are at a gripping stop position capable of gripping a
vessel Y, while the supporting shaft 10 and the associated members
are at a reversal stop position, i.e. vessel Y is in a nearly
inverted state. The vessel Y according to the present embodiment is
a cylindrical vessel having a bottom and is supplied successively
by a supply conveyor 71 to the position shown (see FIG. 1).
[0045] A through hole is formed through the supporting shaft 9, and
a sliding shaft 12 is inserted through this through hole. Although
the sliding shaft 12 is movable in the axial direction, no turning
is possible. One end of the sliding shaft 12 (lower side in FIG. 2)
is projected from the supporting shaft 9, and a cylindrical part 14
formed at the base part of a gripping member supporting block 13 is
fitted on this projecting portion. The block 13 is fixed to an
flange part 9a formed at one end of the supporting shaft 9. The
supporting block 13 is equipped with a fork part 15, and a left
gripping member 16 and a right gripping member 17 which rotate
together with supporting pins 16a, 17a, respectively, are mounted
on the respective tip ends of the fork part 15.
[0046] A link linkage member 18 is securely mounted on the end of
the sliding shaft 12 projecting from the cylindrical part 14 of the
gripping member supporting block 13. On the opposite side surface
of the cylindrical part 14, one end of a link 18a is rotatably
connected to the link linkage member 18 (see the second supporting
shaft 10 and the associated members in FIG. 2.), and one end of
connecting arm part 17b of the right gripping member 17 is
rotatably connected to the other end of the link 18a. An engagement
pin 19 is fixed to stand on an engagement arm part 17c of the right
gripping member 17 extending in a direction nearly orthogonal to
the connecting arm part 17b, and an elongated hole 16c formed
through a linking arm part 16b of the left gripping member 16 is
fitted to this pin 19 so that a motion is transmitted between both
gripping members 16, 17.
[0047] A spring receiving part 12a with an increased diameter is
formed on the sliding shaft 12 at a portion inside of the
cylindrical part 14 of the gripping member supporting block 13, and
a compression spring 20 is disposed between this receiving part 12a
and an inside end face of the cylindrical part 14 of the supporting
block 13. Therefore, this spring acts to urge the right and left
gripping members 16, 17 in the closing direction.
[0048] A roller 21 is attached to the opposite end of the sliding
shaft 12 through an attachment shaft 22. With regard to this roller
21, a gripping member opening/closing cam 25 is disposed and
securely mounted on the front end of a rod 24a of an air cylinder
24 that is mounted on the frame 4 through an attachment bracket 23.
The opening/closing cam 25 is in the shape of a nearly semicircle
ring (see FIG. 4), and a face thereof facing the roller 21
comprises flat part 25a and inclined part 25b. The inclined part
25b inclines in a direction where it is gradually separated away
more from the roller 21 as going towards the end thereof (see FIGS.
2 and 4, in this condition illustrated, the roller 21 associated
with the first supporting shaft 9 is placed on the flat part 25a
and the roller 21 associated with the second supporting shaft 10 is
disengaged from the cam 25).
[0049] When the main rotating shaft 7 is in the stationary state
and the first supporting shaft 9 and the associated sliding shaft
12 are in the position shown in FIG. 2, the air cylinder 24 is
actuated to retract its rod 24a, the cam 25 is moved backwardly,
and the gripping members 16, 17 are closed, thereby gripping the
vessel Y. The main rotating shaft then starts to rotate (in the
present embodiment, it rotates in the clockwise direction as viewed
in FIG. 1 and in the counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG.
4). And when the roller 21 associated with the first supporting
shaft 9 is disengaged from the cam 25, the air cylinder 24 is
actuated in the reverse direction, thereby returning the cam 25 to
its original position. As will be described later, after the main
rotating shaft 7 is stopped at the reversal stop position where the
vessel Y is reversed (in the drawings, the second supporting shaft
10 is in this position), and when it resumes rotating in the same
direction in order to return to the gripping stop position, the
roller 21 is rested on the inclined part 25b of the cam 25 on the
way of returning, and then on the flat part 25a, thereby opening
again gripping members 16, 17. This will be described again
later.
[0050] Next, a mechanism for reversing the vessel Y will be
described. Numeral 31 denotes a motor mounted on the main rotating
shaft supporting part 6 of the frame 4 (see FIG. 2). An output
shaft 32 of the motor 31 extends through the supporting part 6, and
a driving gear 33 located between the supporting parts 5 and 6 is
fixed to the front end thereof. This driving gear 33 meshes with a
driven gear 34 fixed to the main rotating shaft 7. According to the
present embodiment, the motor 31 turns intermittently in the same
direction to rotate the main rotating shaft 7 every 180 degrees in
the clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1 and in the
counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 4. In this case, the
supporting shafts 9, 10 are also rotated in one around the center
of the main rotating shaft 7. Therefore, the vessel Y gripped by
the gripping members 16,17 attached to the supporting shafts 9,10
also rotate around the axis of the main rotating shaft 7. As
clearly illustrated in FIG. 1, the axis of the main rotating shaft
7, and, therefore, also the center of rotation of the gripping
members 16,17 is situated at a position higher than the center in
the vertical direction of the vessel in the upright state supplied
to the gripping stop position. This point will be explained later
again.
[0051] In FIG. 2, a cam lever 35 is fixedly secured at one end
thereof to the end part of the supporting shafts 9 (10) projecting
upwardly from the main rotating shaft 7 (see FIG. 4). A cam roller
36 is mounted on the other end of the lever 35. Corresponding to
these cam rollers 36, a grooved cam 37 is fixed to the main
rotating shaft supporting part 6. A groove 38 is formed on the cam
37 and the cam roller 36 is fitted in and rolls along the groove
38. The groove 38 is provided with a uniform part 38a where the
inside and outside walls 39 and 40 of the groove 38 are concentric
with each other, having its center at the center of the main
rotating shaft 7. The width of the uniform part 38a of the groove
38 nearly corresponds to the diameter of the cam roller 36. The
groove 38 is also provided with an enlarged part 38b with an
increased width. Namely, the inside wall 39 has a concentric part
39a, and a displacement part 39b where the radius of curvature is
decreased gradually and is increased gradually again as going in
the counterclockwise direction from the left upper part to the
lower part in FIG. 4. Further, the outside wall 40 has a concentric
part 40a, and a displacement part 40b where the radius of curvature
is increased gradually and is decreased again at the upper part.
Therefore, the supporting shafts 9, 10 are unable to rotate as long
as the cam roller 36 is located in the uniform part 38a while
rotating is possible in the enlarged part 38b.
[0052] In FIG. 4, corresponding to the end part of the cam lever 35
associated with the second supporting shaft 10 on which end part
the cam roller 36 is mounted, there is a stopper mechanism 45 for
regulating the stop position or the reversal position of the
gripping members 16, 17 mounted on this cam lever 35 and, thus the
position of the second supporting shaft 10.
[0053] In addition to FIG. 4, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, FIG. 5 is
a plan view showing details of the stopper mechanism 45 and FIG. 6
is its right side view. Numeral 46 denotes a rail of the stopper
mechanism 45 that is secured to the main rotating shaft supporting
part 6 of the frame 4. In FIGS. 4 and 5, a slide member 47 is
mounted on the rail 46 to be movable in the lateral direction as
viewed in FIGS. 4 and 5. A slide plate 48 is fixed integrally on
the slide member 47, a stopper roller 50 is mounted on the left
side end part of the slide plate 48 as viewed in FIG. 5 by a
supporting shaft 49, and a contacting part 51 contacting a shock
absorber 52 (which will be described later) is provided on the
slide plate 48 to stand on the right side of the roller 50.
Responding to the contacting part 51, the shock absorber 52 is
mounted on the main rotating shaft supporting part 6 through a
bracket 54. The contacting part 51 of the slide plate 48 is
provided to contact with a contacting shaft 53 of the shock
absorber 52. The position of this shock absorber 52 is adjustable
in the axial direction of the contacting shaft 53.
[0054] When the main rotating shaft 7 starts to rotate from the
state shown in FIG. 1, etc., the first supporting shaft 9 is unable
to rotate around its axis during an early stage, since the cam
roller 36 on the cam lever 35 attached to the shat 9 moves along
and rolls in such a portion where the width of the groove 38 of the
cam 37 is uniform, and the shaft 9 simply rotates or does a
revolution around the axis of the main rotating shaft 7 integrally
with the main rotating shaft 7. When the cam roller 36 comes to the
displacement part 40b of the outside wall 40 of the groove 38 and
further to the displacement part 39b of the inside wall, the width
of the groove 38 becomes greater than the diameter of the cam
roller 36. In this occasion, due to a load exerted to the
supporting shaft 9, the cam roller 36 moves in such a manner that
the cam roller 36 rolls on the inside wall 39b, and the cam lever
35 and the supporting shaft 9 rotate around the axis of the
supporting shaft 9 in the clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 4.
In other words, the cam lever 35 and the gripping members 16, 17
attached to the lever 35 rotate around the axis os the main shaft 7
in a slightly delayed state with regard to the main rotating shaft
7.
[0055] When the main rotating shaft 7 is turned 180 degrees and is
stopped, the cam lever 35 and the supporting shaft 9 now rotate
counterclockwise around the axis of the supporting shaft 9, since
the gripping members 16, 17 continue their motion due to the
inertia force. The end part of the cam lever 35 on which the cam
roller 36 is mounted collides with the stopper roller 50 described
previously, and the cam lever 35, and thus the supporting shaft 9
also stop while the impact is being absorbed by the shock absorber
52. In FIGS. 1 to 4, the second supporting shaft 10 and the
associated members are corresponding to this state. On this
occasion, the vessel Y stops suddenly in a nearly reversed state as
shown in FIG. 1, thereby discharging the contents accommodated in
it into a guide cylinder 56 located underneath. As illustrated, the
vessel Y is not in a completely inverted state. This is because
considerations are given to the direction along which the contents
in the vessel Y are discharged at the sudden stop of the vessel Y,
which considerations are dealt with in the description of the prior
art mentioned above. The direction of discharging can be set in the
optimum state by regulating the final stop position of gripping
members 16, 17, i.e., the reversal stop position, by regulating the
position of the shock absorber 52 of the stopper mechanism 45
described previously.
[0056] Next, the main rotating shaft 7 again resumes rotating in
the same direction at a predetermined timing, and the second
supporting shaft 10 positioned at the reversal stop position in the
figures starts returning movement to the gripping stop position
described previously where the first supporting shaft 9 exists in
the figures. As the main rotating shaft 7 rotates, the supporting
shaft 10 rotates together with the main rotating shaft 7 in such a
manner that the cam lever 35 presses the shock absorber 52 through
the stopper roller 50, and the cam lever 35 is disengaged from the
stopper roller 50. When the cam roller 36 rolls on and moves along
such a portion where the radius of curvature of the displacement
part 39b of the inside wall 39 of the groove 38 becomes greater
gradually, the supporting shaft 10 rotates by a predetermined angle
in the direction opposite to the previous one, and the positional
relationship between the supporting shaft 10 and the main rotating
shaft 7 is restored to the original state.
[0057] Meanwhile, when the main rotating shaft 7 rotates in this
returning process, the roller 21 attached to the sliding shaft 12
described previously rests on the inclined part 25b of the gripping
member opening/closing cam 25 also described previously, and then
rides on the flat part 25a at a predetermined turning position to
open the gripping members 16, 17, thereby discharging the vessel Y
having being gripped till then. This is the vessel discharging
position, at which a vessel carrying-out apparatus 61 is disposed
for receiving emptied vessels and transferring them to downstream
process (see FIGS. 1, 3). The operations of discharging the vessel
Y are carried out while the main rotating shaft 7 continues
rotating.
[0058] The vessel carrying-out apparatus 61 is equipped with an
empty vessel collection conveyor 62, and a vessel collection guide
63 is mounted on the stand 3 by a bracket 64. The guide 63 extends
between a receiving side end of the conveyor 62 and a cutout 56a
formed through the guide cylinder 56. The vessel Y being griped by
the gripping members 16, 17 can pass through the cutout 56a. The
gripping members 16, 17 open, and the empty vessel Y discharged and
received on the empty vessel collection guide 63 moves onto the
conveyor 62 and is transferred to downstream process while being
guided by guide bars 65. The main rotating shaft 7 continues
rotating, and stops after rotated by 180 degrees, while the
gripping members 16, 17 return to the gripping stop position in the
opened state.
[0059] Referring to FIG. 7, detailed explanation will be given
regarding the arrangement where the axis of the main rotating shaft
is situated at a position higher than the center of a vessel in the
upright state supplied to the gripping stop position. In FIG. 7,
symbols O and O' respectively denote the center of rotation of the
gripping members 16,17 employed in the present invention and the
center of rotation of the gripping members 16,17 employed in the
conventional reversing apparatus with respect to the vessel Y
supplied to the same gripping stop position. The figure shows the
manner of the rotation of the vessel Y in the present invention
which is shown by solid lines and of the vessel Y' in the
conventional apparatus which is shown by double dashed chain lines.
Centrifugal force acting in each case is indicated by arrows V and
V', respectively.
[0060] As it is apparent from FIG. 7, in the conventional case,
when vessel Y' is rotated, the direction of centrifugal force V'
acting on vessel Y', i.e., on the contents inside, is orthogonal to
the direction of movement of the vessel Y'. In contrast, in the
embodiment of the present invention, it is oriented obliquely
backward with regard to the direction of movement of the vessel Y
In other words, the centrifugal force V generated in the present
invention acts to force the contents in the vessel Y toward the
part of the cylindrical side wall of the vessel farther from the
center of rotation of the vessel Y and, therefore acts to force the
contents toward the bottom of the vessel Y Namely, the contents in
the vessel Y are forced in the direction opposite to the direction
of the movement of the vessel Y, thereby preventing the contents
from flying out from the vessel Y during rotating. When the center
of rotation of the main rotating shaft 7 is situated at a position
higher than that shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the direction of action of
the centrifugal force V is tilted further to the left in FIG. 7,
thereby enhancing tendency of forcing the contents toward the
bottom of the vessel Y.
[0061] In the embodiment mentioned above, the gripping members 16,
17 which grip the vessel on the outer circumference thereof in
cooperation are used as a holding member for folding the vessel Y.
Alternatively, however, these members may be such a type of
gripping members that grip the vessel on the upper and lower ends
thereof. Further, this is not limited to the embodiment where a
pair of gripping members are used, and, for example, a reversing
apparatus (holding member) disclosed in Japanese Non-examined
Patent Application No. 8-282602 given as an example of conventional
art may be used.
[0062] According to the present embodiment described above, it is
designed that the rotating speed of the motor 31 changes with two
steps mode during one operation. In other words, since discharging
an empty vessel Y at too high speed may cause problems, a
relatively low-speed is employed in the stages before completion of
discharging of the vessel, and then the speed is shifted to a
higher speed after discharging the vessel, thereby ensuring
reliable and thorough ejection of the contents accommodated in the
vessel Y at the reversal stop position.
[0063] Although, according to the embodiment described above, two
supporting shafts are provided and two sets of gripping members are
used for one main rotating shaft, when one set of gripping members
is used, the gripping members can be mounted directly on the main
rotating shaft. On this occasion, a servo motor may be used as a
driving motor for appropriately regulating the rotational angle
from the gripping stop position to the reversal stop position and
the rotational angle in the returning process from the reversal
stop position to the gripping stop position, so that the stopper
mechanism used in the embodiment described above is
unnecessary.
* * * * *