JP3791945B2 - Supply hopper - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial application fields]
The present invention relates to a supply hopper in which a spiral guide is formed so as to protrude from an inner periphery of a body part of a drum-type component supply device, a spiral-type component conveyance device, or the like.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As an effective means for continuously supplying parts such as bolts and nuts to an automatic assembly machine such as an industrial robot, there is a supply hopper having a feeder function as shown in FIGS.
[0003]
5 and 6, reference numeral 1 denotes a bottomed cylindrical rotary drum including a body 1 a and a bottom plate 1 b attached to the bottom opening, and a driven spur gear 2 is attached to the outer central portion of the bottom plate 1 b, and A spiral guide 3 is integrally formed on the inner periphery of the body 1a. Reference numeral 4 denotes two guide rollers 6 and 6 that are rotatably mounted on the tip ends of rods 5 and 5 that are arranged in parallel at intervals smaller than the diameter of the rotating drum 1, and a driven spur gear of the rotating drum 1. 2 is a drum support member that rotatably supports the rotary drum 1 via a centering center 8 fitted to the inner ring of the bearing 7 incorporated in the center hole of the shaft 2, and a drive motor 9 is fixedly provided. A drive spur gear 10 that meshes with the driven spur gear 2 of the rotary drum 1 is attached to the output shaft of the motor 9. 11 is a chute that is formed in a U-shaped cross-section, and the interval between the opposing side plates is gradually narrowed downward, and is attached to a mounting bracket 12 that is installed between the vicinity of the distal ends of the rods 5 and 5. Is arranged at the open end of the rotary drum 1. Reference numeral 13 denotes a drum mounting arm mounted on the drum support member 4, which is supported on the drum support member 4 by pivotally mounting a pivot 14 projecting from the base portion on a support column 16 via a tightening jig 15. The rotating drum 1 is attached to the support column 16 so as to be adjustable in angle.
[0004]
In such a configuration, when the drive motor 9 is driven in a state where a large amount of parts are accommodated in the rotary drum 1, the rotary drum 1 rotates via the drive spur gear 10 and the driven spur gear 2. The components housed therein are sequentially transferred to the opening side by the guidance of the spiral guide 3 accompanying the rotation, and the components are sent out from the opening portion to the outside and supplied to the automatic assembling machine or the like through the chute 11. Yes.
[0005]
Conventionally, in the supply hopper, the rising portion 3a of the spiral guide 3 of the rotating drum 1 (the coupling portion between the spiral guide 3 and the bottom plate 1b) is coupled by a simple butting stop as shown in FIG. Further, in order to smoothly transfer the parts from the bottom plate 1b to the spiral guide 3, as shown in FIG. 8, a recess 1b 'is formed in the bottom plate 1b by, for example, end milling or the like, and a spiral is formed in the recess 1b'. The rising portion 3a of the guide 3 is accommodated.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the conventional supply hopper, the bottom side final turn of the spiral guide 3 of the rotary drum 1 gradually narrows the clearance H with the bottom plate 1b and finally comes into close contact with the bottom plate 1b. The gap H between the rising portion 3a and the bottom plate 1b becomes an acute wedge shape, and when thin and small parts are used for general purposes, the parts enter and get caught in the sharp wedge-like gap H. In some cases, it is impossible to discharge all the parts housed in the container.
[0007]
The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a supply hopper that can eliminate clogging of components at the rising portion of the spiral guide and discharge all components.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized by adopting the following configuration.
[0009]
The present invention is a supply hopper comprising a cylindrical drum with a bottom having a body having a spiral guide protruding from the inner periphery and a bottom plate attached to the bottom opening thereof, wherein the drum is attached to a vertical column. in those rotating in an inclined against, by rounding up Rukoto a predetermined radius smaller than the radius of the spiral guides the lower surface of the bottom final lap of the body of the screw guide from any starting point, the screw guide on the bottom side final lap A side wall perpendicular to the bottom plate extending in a circular arc shape from the valley of the spiral guide to the mountain is formed between the lower surface of the plate and the bottom plate .
[0010]
Further, a recess is formed in the bottom plate, and the rising portion of the spiral guide is accommodated in the recess.
[0011]
If constituted as this, since lost suddenly in the middle of a clearance between the lower surface and the bottom plate of the screw guide on the bottom side final lap gradually narrowed, the gap between the bottom plate of the rising portion of the screw guide Does not have a sharp wedge shape. As a result, even if a part enters, it is easily discharged as the drum rotates and does not get caught. More specifically, by providing a side wall perpendicular to the bottom plate that extends in an arc shape from the valley to the mountain of the spiral guide, a gap H between the bottom surface of the bottom side of the spiral guide and the bottom plate is conventionally provided. Since it does not have a sharp wedge shape like this, it is difficult to clog parts. Further, since the side wall of the gap H extends in an arc shape from the valley of the spiral guide to the mountain, the parts that have arrived at the gap H slide along the arc-shaped side wall and are discharged toward the center of the body. Therefore, even if a part enters the clearance H, it is not caught and is immediately discharged.
[0012]
Further, by accommodating the rising portion of the spiral guide in the recess formed in the bottom plate, the parts can be smoothly transferred from the bottom plate to the spiral guide.
[0013]
【Example】
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0014]
When processing the spiral guide 3 of the rotary drum 1, the supply hopper of the present invention changes the bottom side final turn of the spiral guide 3 from an arbitrary rounding start point a to a predetermined value as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. characterized in that as rounded up in than a radius R smaller again radius r. In this case, the radius r and rounding up the start angle θ is arbitrarily set.
[0015]
By rounding up this way the bottom side final lap of the rotary drum 1 of the screw guide 3 at a predetermined radius R from the small old radius r of the spiral guide 3 from any rounded up starting a, as shown in FIG. 3, the spiral guide 3 since the bottom end lap disappears suddenly on the way gradually narrowed gap H between the bottom plate 1b, the gap H between the bottom plate 1b of the rising portion 3a of the screw guide 3 is not a sharp wedge shape. This will become clearer if FIG. 3 and FIG. 7 or FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 are compared.
[0016]
In the supply hopper of the present invention, the gap H between the rising portion 3a of the spiral guide 3 and the bottom plate 1b does not have a sharp wedge shape, so that when the thin and small parts are used for general purposes, the rising portion 3a of the spiral guide 3 is used. Even if a part enters the clearance H with the bottom plate 1b, the hook does not get caught. Therefore, all the parts accommodated in the rotary drum 1 can be discharged.
[0017]
In addition to the combination with the flat bottom plate 1b as in the above embodiment, the present invention can also be combined with the bottom plate 1b in which the recess 1b 'is formed by, for example, end milling as shown in FIG. In that case, the same effects as described above can be obtained .
[0018]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, by rounding up the underside of the screw guide in the bottom final lap of the rotary drum at a predetermined radius from the small old radius of the helical guide, the lower surface of the screw guide on the bottom side final lap Since a side wall perpendicular to the bottom plate extending in a circular arc shape from the valley to the mountain of the spiral guide is formed between the bottom plate and the bottom plate at the rising portion of the spiral guide, the gap does not become an acute wedge shape, As a result, the clogging of parts at the rising portion of the spiral guide can be eliminated, and all parts can be discharged. Further, by accommodating the rising portion of the spiral guide in the recess formed in the bottom plate, the transfer of the components from the bottom plate to the spiral guide becomes smooth, and the clogging of the components at the rising portion of the spiral guide can be more reliably eliminated. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an end view of a bottom portion of a drum used in a supply hopper according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a bottom portion of a drum used in the supply hopper of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a rising portion of a spiral guide of a supply hopper according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a rising portion of a spiral guide according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a side view showing a cross-section of the main part showing the overall structure of the supply hopper.
6 is a drawing viewed from an arrow B in FIG. 5. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a rising portion of a spiral guide of a conventional supply hopper.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a rising portion of a spiral guide of a conventional supply hopper.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rotating drum 1a Body 1b Bottom plate 3 Spiral guide 3a Rising part of spiral guide a Rounding start point R Predetermined radius r of spiral guide Small radius θ

Claims (2)

A supply hopper comprising a cylindrical drum with a bottom having a trunk formed with a spiral guide projecting on the inner periphery and a bottom plate attached to the bottom opening thereof, wherein the drum is inclined with respect to a vertical column in those rotates while, by rounding up Rukoto a predetermined radius smaller than the radius of the spiral guides the lower surface of the bottom final lap of the body of the screw guide from any starting point, the lower surface and the bottom plate of the screw guide on the bottom side final lap A supply hopper characterized by forming a side wall perpendicular to the bottom plate extending in a circular arc shape from a valley to a mountain of the spiral guide .   The supply hopper according to claim 1, wherein a recess is formed in the bottom plate, and a rising portion of the spiral guide is accommodated in the recess.

Images