Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Reciprocating conveying surface
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-28
2004-03-23
Bidwell, James R. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Reciprocating conveying surface
C198S766000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708815
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present application claims priority upon Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-222043 filed on Jul. 23, 2001, which is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an article conveyor device.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed various devices to convey and align articles such as so-called unpackaged parts, and to feed them one by one. These devices are generally referred to as a “parts feeder”. There are various types of parts feeders such as a vibratory type, a rotating type, an oscillating type, a belt type, and a shaking type, in which a vibratory parts feeder is the most common. This vibratory parts feeder is a device where articles to be conveyed are placed on a vibrating surface, and by use of a relative slip and jump phenomenon between the articles and the vibrating surface, alignment and conveying of the articles are performed.
An exemplary example of a linear vibratory parts feeder is described referring to FIG.
7
. As shown in
FIG. 7
, a plate is supported in a state biased by a few pairs of flat springs in respect to a base. Further, the base is provided with an electromagnet, and a stay integrally provided with the plate may be drawn near by this electromagnet. Therefore, if an alternating voltage with a predetermined frequency is applied to the electromagnet, the flat springs vibrate in the directions B according to the frequency. In this way, the article (work) accommodated on the plate is appropriately conveyed in a direction A in the figure.
However, a vibratory parts feeder having such a structure has various problems. For example, the problems are such as a lot of time in adjustment to efficiently carry out article conveyance, magnetization of the work, and generation of noise. In particular, regarding noise, in the case of a vibratory parts feeder with the above described structure, the work is made to jump in respect to the plate and conveyed, thus noise is generated when the work lands on the plate.
In view of the above problems, there is proposed a vibratory parts feeder using a cam, for example, such as that shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 58-6810 (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Sho 63-24891). A device described therein has a bowl supported rotatably about a center shaft The bowl is rotated while horizontally vibrated by a cam so that a significant difference in accelerations for back and forth strokes exists, so as to convey the work inside it using friction force and inertial force.
In this device, since a cam is used, and the bowl horizontally oscillates and does not reciprocate in an up-and-down direction, the work does not jump on the bowl, and thus this device is advantageous in that a conventional problem regarding noise may be eased. However, since with this device the bowl horizontally oscillates and does not reciprocally move in the up-and-down direction, the work on the bowl is always contacted toward the bowl with a predetermined force by gravity.
In order to efficiently convey the work, it is preferable for a contact pressure of the work in respect to a work convey surface to vary depending on a direction of the work convey surface movement, i.e., in the case the work convey surface moves in the conveying direction of the work, and in the case the work convey surface moves in an opposite direction to the above. In other words, it is preferable at the time the work convey surface moves in the conveying direction of the work, to make the work contact against the work convey surface with a stronger force, to suppress sliding of the work in respect to the work convey surface and to actively convey the work, whereas, it is preferable at the time the work convey surface moves in an opposite direction to a conveying direction of the work, to make the work contact against the work convey surface with a slighter force, to encourage the work to slide in respect to the work convey surface and to suppress the work from returning to an opposite direction of the conveying direction of the work.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and one object of the present invention is to provide an article conveyor device which may effectively convey an article by a cam drive.
One aspect of the present invention for achieving the above and other objects is an article conveyor device comprising:
a reciprocating portion which is driven by a cam to reciprocate; and
an article conveyor portion for conveying an article being inclined by a predetermined angle in respect to a reciprocating direction of the reciprocating portion in a vertical plane, and cooperating with the reciprocating portion;
wherein the article is conveyed along the article conveyor portion by a reciprocating motion of the reciprocating portion.
For example, the article conveyor portion may be set in a horizontal state.
At the time the article conveyor portion reciprocates from a first position diagonally upwards to reach a second position, and from the second position diagonally downwards to reach the first position,
a time taken for the article conveyor portion to move from the first position to the second position, may be longer than a time taken for the article conveyor portion to move from the second position to the first position.
The article conveyor portion may travel at a constant speed for a predetermined time period while the article conveyor portion moves from the first position to the second position.
The cam may rotate with an input shaft which is made to rotate by a driving means, and may comprise a cam portion formed by ribs along a rotating direction of the input shaft, and
the reciprocating portion may comprise a first cam follower and a second cam follower which respectively contact the rib from both sides.
The reciprocating portion is supported on a housing by means of slide guides, and is guided by the slide guides to reciprocate.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4243132 (1981-01-01), Miyakoshi et al.
patent: 4724949 (1988-02-01), Misina
patent: 5178258 (1993-01-01), Smalley et al.
patent: 5542804 (1996-08-01), Merkle et al.
patent: 6598733 (2003-07-01), Kato
patent: 1 280 738 (1968-10-01), None
patent: 953412 (1964-03-01), None
patent: 1141123 (1969-01-01), None
patent: 58-006810 (1983-01-01), None
patent: 4-55209 (1992-02-01), None
patent: 933572 (1982-06-01), None
European Search Report EP 02 25 4567 dated Nov. 18, 2002.
Bidwell James R.
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
Sankyo Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
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