JPH09123082A - Article gripping device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) 【Abstract】 PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stably hold articles having various outer diameter shapes. SOLUTION: In an article gripping device 10 in which a gripping part 12 is arranged to face a support member 11 and grips and grips an article 16 by these gripping parts, the gripping part is provided on a flexible film 17. Vacuum pump 15 containing a large number of granular materials 18
Also, due to the action of the switching valve 13, the inside can be maintained in a depressurized state or a depressurized state.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
For example, the present invention relates to an article gripping device for positioning an article.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 6, a conventional article gripping device 1 has a gripping portion 3 formed on each support member 2, and an elastic member 4 such as rubber is attached to the gripping portion 3. The article 5 is sandwiched and gripped.

[0003]

However, in the above-described article gripping device 1, stable gripping cannot be obtained if the outer diameter shape of the gripped article 5 is different. A stable grip is realized by exchanging with an article suitable for the article 5 to be gripped.

Therefore, in order to stably grip several kinds of articles having different outer diameter shapes, it is necessary to prepare several kinds of support members 2 each having the gripping portion 3 adapted to the kind of the above-mentioned article. A great deal of time is required for the replacement work of the support member 2.

An object of the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an article gripping device capable of stably gripping articles having various outer diameter shapes.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an article gripping device, in which gripping portions are arranged to face a supporting member, and the gripping portions grip and grip the article. The part is configured such that a flexible film contains a large number of particles, and the inside of the part can be maintained in a depressurized state or a depressurized state.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the invention according to the first aspect, a pair of the supporting members are provided, and the gripping portions are arranged to face these supporting members.

The invention described in claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
In the invention described in (1), the gripping member has a holding member that allows the film to have flexibility and airtightness and to hold the inside in a reduced pressure state.

The invention described in claims 1 to 3 has the following effects. Since the gripping part contains a large number of granular substances in a flexible film and the inside can be switched and held in a depressurized or depressurized state, if the gripping part is put in the depressurized released state, the gripping surface is , The outer diameter shape of the article to be grasped can be changed, and if the inside of the grasping section is in a reduced pressure state, a large number of granular materials in the grasping section are tightly coupled, and the grasping surface is formed into the outer diameter shape of the article. Can be held at Therefore, the holding surface of the gripping portion can be adapted to the outer diameter shape of various articles by switching and holding the inside of the gripping portion to the depressurized state or the depressurized release state. It can be applied to articles and can be stably gripped.

In particular, the invention described in claim 3 has the following effects. The film of the gripping part has flexibility and airtightness, and a hold member was installed in this gripping part so that the inside of the gripping part can be maintained in a decompressed state, so that the gripping surface of the gripping part is once adapted to the outer diameter shape of the article. After this, the support member can be moved separately from the decompression source that depressurizes the grip portion.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an article gripping device according to the present invention. FIG.
(A), (B) and (C) are process diagrams showing a gripping surface forming process for one article of a gripping part in the article gripping device of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a front view showing the article gripping device after the gripping surface is formed. FIG. 4 is a front view of the article gripping device showing a gripping surface returning state. 5 (A), (B) and (C) are views of an article gripping unit in the article gripping device of FIG.
It is process drawing which shows the holding surface formation process about another article.

As shown in FIG. 1, the article gripping device 10 includes:
The grip portion 12 is installed at the tip of the pair of support members 11,
A vacuum pump 15 as a pressure reducing source is connected to the grip portion 12 via a pipe 14 in which a switching valve 13 is arranged.

The pair of support members 11 are pivotally supported at their base ends, and the gripping portions 12 arranged to face each other provide an article (bottle) 1
6 can be held by gripping.

The grip portion 12 is formed by enclosing a large number of particles 18 in a non-fixed state in the film 17, and a porous body 20 such as a mesh is installed in the supply / discharge port 19 of the film 17. The supply / discharge port 19 communicates with the supply / discharge hole 21 of the support member 11,
The pipe 14 is connected to the supply / discharge hole 21.

The film 17 is made of flexible rubber or cloth. The granular material 18 is composed of sand, salt, sugar, pellets (fine resin), beans, beads, rice, pachinko balls, and the like. Furthermore, the opening of the porous body 20 is set to a size that prevents the particulate matter 18 from passing through.

The switching valve 13 arranged in the pipe 14 has an A port and a B port. This switching valve 13 makes it possible to maintain the inside of the gripping portion 12 in a depressurized (negative pressure) state by the action of the vacuum pump 15 when switched to the A port, and the inside of the gripping portion 12 when switched to the B port. The decompression state can be maintained as atmospheric pressure.

Under the depressurized state in which the inside of the gripping portion 12 is at atmospheric pressure, there are gaps between a large number of granular materials 18, and these granular materials 18 can move freely, and the gripping portion 12
The shape of the gripping surface 22 of is deformable. Further, in the grip portion 12, under a depressurized state where the inside has a negative pressure, a large number of granular materials 18 are tightly coupled and the grip surface 22 is held in a predetermined shape.

Next, the operation of the article gripping device 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. In order to adapt the gripping surface 22 of the gripping portion 12 to the article 16, first, the switching valve 13 is switched to the B port, and the inside of the gripping portion 12 is set to the atmospheric pressure and the depressurized state is set.

In this depressurized state, the article 16 is gripped as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, and the grip surface 22 is deformed into the outer diameter shape of the article 16. In the gripped state of the article 16, the vacuum pump 15 is then operated to switch the switching valve 13 to the A port, and as shown in FIG. . As a result, as shown in FIG. 2C, the grip surface 22 of the grip portion 12 is held in the outer diameter shape of the article 16.

In this state, the article 16 is removed (FIG. 3), and a work of gripping a large number of articles 16 of the same type having the same outer diameter shape as the article 16 is carried out.

When switching the product type, the switching valve 13 is set to B
By switching to the port, the inside of the grip portion 12 is set to atmospheric pressure and the depressurization is released. Then, the gripping surface 22 of the gripping portion 12 is restored to the original shape and is in a deformable state, as shown in FIG.

In this state, an article 23 of a new type having a different outer diameter shape is grasped as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, and the grasping surface 22 of the grasping portion 12 is formed by the new article. It is deformed into the outer diameter shape 23. In the gripped state of the article 23, the vacuum pump 15 is operated, the switching valve 13 is switched to the A port, and the inside of the gripping portion 12 is set to a negative pressure to be in the depressurized state (FIG. 5 (B)). By doing so, the gripping surface 22 of the gripping portion 12 is changed to a new article 2 as shown in FIG.
3 is retained in the outer diameter shape.

In this state, the article 23 is removed, and the article 23 of the same kind and having the same outer diameter shape as the article 23 described above.
Work to grip a large number of.

Next, the effects of the above embodiment will be described. Since the grip portion 12 is configured to enclose a large number of granular materials 18 in the flexible film 17 and the inside can be switched and held in a depressurized state or a depressurized state, if the gripping portion 12 is set to the depressurized state, The gripping surface 22 can be deformed into the outer diameter shape of the article 16, 23 to be gripped, and the gripping portion 12
If the inside is depressurized, a large number of granular materials 1
8 intimately connect the gripping surface 22 to the articles 16, 23.
Can be held in the outer diameter shape. Therefore, by switching and holding the inside of the grip portion 12 to the depressurized or depressurized state, the grip surface 22 of the grip portion 12 can be adapted to the outer diameter shape of various articles, so that the grip surface 12 has various outer diameter shapes. It is possible to deal with articles 16, 23, ... Of different types, and to stably hold these articles.

Further, in the above-mentioned article gripping device 10, the switching valve 13 is operated at the time of switching the type of the article so that the gripping surface 22 of the gripping portion 12 is adapted to the outer diameter shape of the article of the new type. It is not necessary to replace the support member 2 provided with the gripping portion 3 in the fixed state. Therefore, it is easy to change the mold of the article gripping device when the product type is changed, and the mold change can be completed in a short time.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned article gripping device 10 fills a bottle with a liquid such as detergent and caps the bottle,
In a liquid filling and packaging facility for packaging a plurality of capped bottles, a bottle gripper of a filling machine that fills the bottle with the liquid, a bottle gripper or a cap gripper of a cap mounting machine that caps the bottles, and a bottle is packaged. It can be applied to bottle grippers (chucks) of cartoning machines.

The film 17 of the grip portion 12 is made of a flexible and airtight material such as rubber, and the inside of the grip portion 12 is decompressed in the supply / discharge hole 21 of the support member 11. A holding member 24 that can be held at (shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 1)
Is installed, the gripping surface 22 of the gripping part 12 can be attached to the articles 16, 2
After being once adapted to the outer diameter shape of item 3, the article gripping device 10
Can be moved separately from the vacuum pump 15 and the switching valve 13. Therefore, the article gripping device 10
In the above liquid filling and packaging equipment, it can be applied to a bottle transporting device that holds bottles and sequentially transports them to a filling machine, a cap mounting machine, and a packaging machine, and a cap transportation device that transports a cap to the cap mounting machine. .

[0028]

As described above, according to the article gripping device of the present invention, articles having various outer diameter shapes can be stably gripped.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing one embodiment of an article gripping device according to the present invention.

2 (A), (B) and (C) are process diagrams showing a gripping surface forming process for one article of a gripping part in the article gripping device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the article gripping device after the gripping surface is formed.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the article gripping device showing a gripping surface returning state.

5 (A), (B), and (C) are process diagrams showing a gripping surface forming process for another article of the article gripping unit in the article gripping apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional article gripping device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 article gripping device 11 support member 12 gripping part 13 switching valve 15 vacuum pump 16 article 17 coating 18 granular material 22 gripping surface 23 article

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A grip portion is arranged to face the support member,
In an article gripping device for gripping and gripping an article by these gripping sections, the gripping section includes a large number of granular substances in a flexible film,
An article gripping device characterized in that the inside thereof can be held in a depressurized state or a depressurized state. 2. The article gripping device according to claim 1, wherein a pair of the support members are provided, and the gripping portions are arranged to face the support members. 3. The article gripping device according to claim 1, wherein the gripping member has a holding member that has a film having flexibility and airtightness and can hold the inside in a reduced pressure state.