Patent Grant
6871566
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a cap opening system and a method for opening a cap, and in particular is related to a system and method for removing a cap provided in the upper portion of a container body of a container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A cap opening apparatus used in a sample preprocessing system or the like is an apparatus which automatically removes a cap provided in a container such as a test tube or the like. Various cap opening apparatuses have been proposed in the prior art, but any apparatus that can be applied to various types of containers and caps has not yet been put to practical use. Namely, there are a wide variety of container body shapes (lengths in particular) and cap sizes (thicknesses in particular) depending on the type of container. Accordingly, when the operation conditions of the apparatus are fixed or standardized, it is difficult to carry out a cap opening operation for containers having various container bodies and caps. Further, there are push-in caps and screw caps and the like. In the case of a push-in cap, it is preferred that the cap is rotated during the cap opening operation, while in the case of a screw cap, the cap must be rotated for opening it
As described above, the prior art cap opening apparatuses can merely raise and lower a container with a cap by a predetermined distance, and operate a holding mechanism or cap grasping mechanism for caps of containers having a predetermined diameter.
Recently, containers having various container bodies and caps are put to practical use, and for this reason there is a demand for a cap opening apparatus which has a relatively simple structure and can automatically adapt its operating conditions to the shape of the container body and the cap of a container even when various containers having different container bodies and caps are supplied to the apparatus.
Further, when one mechanism is provided to grasp the cap and a separate mechanism is provided to rotate the grasped cap, the structure of the apparatus necessarily becomes large and complex. Further, in this case, it is necessary to provide a separate driving source. Furthermore, in the case where caps having various diameters are to be handled, it is desirous that a predetermined grasping force is applied irrespective of the cap diameter and that the cap is rotated at high speed from the point in time when such predetermined grasping force is created, but mechanisms in response to such demand have not yet been realized up to now. The same demand also exists for other apparatuses that need to grasp and rotate objects.
The present invention is made in view of the problem in the prior art described above. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cap opening system which can perform a cap opening operation reliably.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cap opening system which can be used for various containers having caps of different sizes.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cap opening system equipped with a cap handling apparatus in which a cap is first grasped and then the cap is rotated.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a cap opening system equipped with a cap handling apparatus in which a force for grasping a cap and a force for rotating the cap are provided by a single driving source.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a cap opening system equipped with a cap handling apparatus in which the cap is rotated after a constant grasping force is produced irrespective of the size of the cap to be grasped.
In order to achieve the objects stated above, the present invention is directed to a cap opening system for automatically opening a cap of a container which includes a container body and the cap attached thereto. The cap opening system comprises a container body handling apparatus for holding the container body of the container to raise and lower it, a cap handling apparatus arranged above the container body handling apparatus for grasping and then opening the cap of the container when the container body is raised, and positioning means for positioning the cap with respect to the cap opening apparatus.
According to the above structure, the container body is held by the container body handling apparatus and then it is raised upward. Then, the cap is positioned with respect to the cap handling apparatus, and then a cap opening operation is carried out. In this invention, since such positioning means is provided, it is possible to position the cap properly with respect to the cap handling apparatus irrespective of the thickness of the cap and the length of the container body.
Preferably, the positioning means positions the cap with respect to the cap handling apparatus based on the reference surface of the cap. Further, preferably, the reference surface is a top surface of the cap. Since the cap handling apparatus grasps a portion of the cap below the top surface therof, it is quite reasonable that the top surface of the cap is used as the reference surface.
Preferably, the positioning means includes a cap receiving member to which the top surface of the cap is adapted to abut, said cap receiving member being arranged below the cap handling apparatus, in which the positioning of the cap is carried out by abutting the top surface of the cap against the cap receiving member. In this arrangement, because the positioning is carried out using the abutment of two parts, positioning can be carried out reliably with a simple structure.
In this case, it is preferred that the cap receiving member has a central portion and a peripheral portion, in which a concave part is formed in the central portion and an extending part which extends downward is formed in the peripheral portion thereof. In this arrangement, the top surface of the cap abuts against the lower surface of the extending part. In this case, it is preferred that the concave part has size and shape that can receive a protruding portion of the cap which protrudes upward from the central portion of the top surface of the cap.
Further, it is also preferred that the container body handling apparatus includes an abutment detecting device for detecting abutment of the top surface of the cap against the cap receiving member, and a control section for stopping the raising operation of the container body when the abutment detecting device detects the abutment. In this arrangement, it is also preferred that the cap opening system includes buffer means for damping impact by the abutment when the top surface of the cap abuts against the cap receiving member.
Furthermore, it is also preferred that the cap opening system further comprises a first sensor which emits a vertical optical beam along the raising and lowering path of the cap, a second sensor which emits a horizontal optical beam which intersects the raising and lowering path of the cap at a predetermined height, and means for determining the presence or absence of the cap based on the outputs of the first and second sensors. In this arrangement, the raising operation of the container body is stopped when the horizontal optical beam is interrupted, and in this state the presence or absence of an object within a predetermined range in height is detected utilizing the vertical optical beam.
In this arrangement, it is preferred that the first sensor is positioned above the container body at least before the cap opening operation is carried out. In this case, it is also preferred that the first sensor is positioned above the container body again when the cap opening operation has been carried out.
Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a cap opening system for automatically opening a cap of a container which includes a container body and the cap attached thereto. The cap opening system comprises a container body handling apparatus for holding the container body to raise and lower it, a reference surface detector which detects a reference surface of the cap of the container when the container body is raised upward by the container body handling apparatus, a cap handling apparatus for grasping and then opening the cap of the container, and means for controlling the operations of the container body handling apparatus and the cap handling apparatus to position the cap with respect to the cap handling apparatus based on the detected reference surface.
According to the above structure, the container body is held by the container body handling apparatus and then it is raised upward. At that time, the reference surface of the cap is detected by the reference surface detector. Then, based on the height of the reference surface, the cap is positioned with respect to the cap handling apparatus at a predetermined proper height. As described above, according to this arrangement, the level of the reference surface is detected individually. Therefore, even if there is a wide variety of cap thickness or container body length, it is possible to carry out proper positioning of such caps with respect to the cap handling apparatus within a certain degree. In other words, when a cap is grasped by the cap handling apparatus, a proper grasping position can be set. In this connection, it is to be noted that although it is preferred that the positioning of the cap is carried out by adjusting the height of the cap itself, such positioning may be done by adjusting the height of the cap handling apparatus.
Preferably, the reference level is the top surface of the cap. This is effective because detection of the top surface can be made relatively easily, and because the cap is grasped at its middle portion below the top surface.
Preferably, the reference surface detector includes a light emitting element and a light receiving element arranged at opposite sides of the raising and lowering path of the cap so that an optical beam is run between the light receiving and light emitting elements, in which the top surface of the cap is detected utilizing the interruption of the beam by the cap. According to this arrangement, the reference level can be detected reliably with a relatively simple structure.
In this case, it is preferred that the top surface of the cap has a central portion and a peripheral portion which is located at a position shifted from the central portion in the horizontal direction, in which the light receiving and light emitting elements are arranged so that the beam is run across the peripheral portion, thereby enabling to detect the top surface of the cap irrespective of the shape of the central portion of the top surface of the cap. This arrangement is particularly preferred for the type of cap having a protruding portion on its central portion of the top surfaces thereof, since it is possible to avoid the case that such a protruding portion is miss-recognized as the reference surface.
Further, it is preferred that the control section sets the height at which the reference surface is detected by the reference surface detector as a reference level and then raises the container body by a predetermined distance, thereby positioning the cap with respect to the cap handling apparatus. In this arrangement, the predetermined distance is preferably set to be a fixed distance, but it may be changed depending on the situations.
Further, it is also preferred that the cap opening system further comprises a cap presence or absence detector for detecting presence or absence of the cap. This makes it possible to increase the reliability of the detected result of the reference surface detector.
In this case, it is also preferred that the cap presence or absence detector is positioned above the container body at least before the cap opening operation is carried out. According to this arrangement, it is possible to avoid the case that the upper edge of the container body is miss-recognized as the reference surface when no cap is attached to the container body.
Further, it is also preferred that the cap presence or absence detector is positioned above the container body again when the cap opening operation has been carried out. According to this arrangement, it is also possible to confirm whether or not the cap is opened. In this case, such confirmation may be done using the reference surface detector alone or in combination with other detector.
In this arrangement, it is preferred that the cap presence or absence detector includes a reflection type optical sensor which detects the presence or absence of an object within a predetermined range in height. According to this arrangement, it is possible to confirm the presence of the cap by carrying out detection at the time when the reference surface is detected or before or after that time. Further, it is preferred that the predetermined range in height is set to the range where the reference surface may lie therein taking variety in thickness of caps or length of container bodies into account. This makes it possible to avoid the case where a liquid surface in a container body is miss-recognized as a cap.
In the cap opening system, it is preferred that the container body handling apparatus comprises a pair of holding mechanisms, which are arranged opposite to each other so as to be capable of advancing or retracting, for holding a container body of a container which is supported by a rack from opposite sides of the container body; and a raising and lowering mechanism for raising and lowering the pair of holding mechanisms. According to this arrangement, since the distance between the pair of holding mechanisms can be relatively freely set, it becomes possible to hold or grip various container bodies having different diameters to a certain extent. Namely, this arrangement makes it possible for the system to handle a wide variety of containers having caps and containers of difference sizes in addition to the advantage obtained by the positioning of caps based on the reference levels thereof.
In this cap opening system, it is also preferred that the cap handling apparatus comprises a clamp mechanism for holding the cap, and a driving mechanism for driving the clamp mechanism so that the clamp mechanism is opened and closed with being rotated. According to this arrangement, since the clamp mechanism can perform grasping operation for various types of caps having different diameters and the clamp mechanism can be rotated, this structure can also be applied to containers having screw caps (screw tops). Further, in this arrangement, the system may be controlled that the clamp mechanism is raised and/or the container body is lowered while the cap is being rotated.
Furthermore, in this invention, it is also preferred that the cap opening system further comprises a movable member on which the cap handling apparatus is mounted; and means for driving the movable member so as to position the cap handling apparatus above the container body which is held by the container body handling apparatus when the cap is to be opened while positioning the cap handling apparatus above a cap disposal section when disposing of the cap.
According to this arrangement, a cap opening operation by the cap handling apparatus and disposal of caps can be made by driving the movable member, that is it is possible to move the cap handling apparatus between two positions with a simple structure.
In this case, it is preferred that the movable member includes a rotary plate which is rotatable between a first angular position and a second angular position, in which the rotation angle of the rotary plate is set at the first angular position when the cap is to be opened and the rotation angle of the rotary plate is set at the second angular position when disposing of the cap.
Further, it is also preferred that the cap presence or absence detector is mounted on the rotary plate, in which when the rotary plate is in the first angular position, the cap presence or absence detector is positioned at its evacuated position, while when the rotary plate is in the second angular position, the cap presence or absence detector is positioned above the container body held by the container body handling apparatus.
In the present invention, it is preferred that the cap handling apparatus comprises a base frame; a rotary unit rotatably provided with respect to the base frame; a plurality of arms provided on the rotary unit for grasping the cap; and a brake mechanism for restricting the rotation of the rotary unit, wherein the rotary unit comprises a rotary frame, a rotation shaft which is a shaft rotatably driven and provided so as to be capable of advancing or retracting with respect to the rotary frame with being biased toward the advancing direction, said rotation shaft includes an engagement part which is to be engaged with the brake mechanism to release its rotation restricted state at a retracting position thereof, and a screw part; and a cam member threaded onto the screw part, and said cam member is adapted to move in an advancing direction by the forward rotation of the rotation shaft in the rotation restricted state of the rotary unit to cause the plurality of arms perform the grasping operation, and adapted to stop the advancing movement after the grasping operation has been completed to convert the forward rotational movement of the rotation shaft into a retracting movement of the rotation shaft, wherein by the forward rotational movement of the rotation shaft, the plurality of arms first perform the grasping operation and then the plurality of arms are rotated.
According to the above arrangement, when the cam member is retracted relative to the rotation shaft, the plurality of arms are in an open state (or a release state) and rotation of the rotary unit is restricted by the brake mechanism. When the rotation shaft is rotated forward from this state, the cam member is advanced relative to the rotation shaft due to threading engagement between the screw part of the rotation shaft and the cam member, and then according to the advancing movement of the cam member, the plurality of arms perform the grasping operation. When the grasping operation for the cap by the plurality of arms have been completed, the cam member is no longer possible to advance even by the forward rotation of the rotation shaft, and because of this, the rotation shaft itself begins the retracting movement by the forward rotation of the rotation shaft. Then, the engagement part of the rotation shaft comes to abutment with the brake mechanism to release the rotation restricted state by the brake mechanism. In this state, the rotary unit is rotated forward by the forward rotation of the rotation shaft. Namely, the plurality of arms are rotated forward as well as the cap is also rotated forward. As described above, according to this arrangement, only by the forward rotation of the rotation shaft, the grasping operation is first performed, and subsequently when the grasping operation is completed, the rotation of the rotary unit (the plurality of arms) is carried out. In this way, the sequential operations described above can be performed with a single driving source.
In this arrangement, the base frame is preferably constructed from a hollow outer casing, and the rotary unit is rotatably provided inside the outer casing through a bearing mechanism or the like. Further, the rotary frame is preferably constructed from a hollow inner casing, and the rotation shaft onto which the cam member is threaded is provided along the central axis of the inner casing.
Further, in this arrangement, it is preferred that the cam member is formed with an inclined surface on which a driving end of each arm slidably contacts, in which the driving ends of the respective arms are moved on the inclined surface according to the advancing movement of the cam member so that operating ends of the respective arms are operated so as to be closed.
According to this arrangement, one end of each arm functions as a driving end, and the other end of the arm (that is, an end of the arm that grasps a cap) functions as an operating end. When the driving ends of the respective arms are slidably moved along the inclined surface, the driving ends of the arms are gradually far away to each other in the horizontal direction, and at the same time, the operating ends of the arms are operated so as to be closed, that is grasping operation is performed. In this case, it is preferred that the length of the inclined surface is determined taking the upper and lower limits of diameters of caps to be handled into account.
Further, in this arrangement, it is preferred that the brake mechanism comprises a brake plate, and biasing means which biases the brake plate in the advancing direction of the rotation shaft, wherein the rotation of the rotary unit is being restricted during the state that the brake plate is in contact with the rotary frame. The biasing means may be formed from one or more springs, for example, and basically, the biasing force of the biasing means provides the grasping operation completing state (that is, a state that a predetermined grasping force is exhibited). In other words, the rotational force transmitted to the rotation shaft after the grasping operation is completed will not be utilized for increasing the grasping force, and such force is utilized for retracting the rotation shaft to release the brake.
Preferably, the brake plate comes to release from the rotary frame from the point of time that a force caused by the retracting movement of the rotation shaft after the conversion exceeds the biasing force of the biasing means, thereby the rotation restricted state of the rotary frame is released.
According to this arrangement it is possible to generate a constant grasping force irrespective of sizes of caps, and it is also possible to rotate the cap automatically from the point of time that a predetermined grasping force is generated.
In this arrangement, it is also preferred that the cap opening system further comprises rotation preventing means for restricting rotation of the rotary unit when the plurality of arms are operated so as to release the grasping cap, wherein by the reverse rotation of the rotation shaft, the cam member carries out the retracting movement relative to the rotation shaft and the rotation shaft carries out the advancing movement.
According to this arrangement, it becomes possible to overcome a problem in that the cam member can not be retracted and returned to the original position since the rotary unit itself is also rotated by the reverse rotation of the rotation shaft when the cap is to be released. The reverse rotation of the rotation shaft is immediately transmitted to the cam member so that the cam member begins its retracting movement. In this regard, it is to be noted that during the reverse rotation of the rotation shaft, the rotation shaft is advanced by the biasing force to be returned its original position.
In this arrangement, it is preferred that the rotation preventing means includes a polygonal member provided on the rotary unit, and a plurality of abutment members which abut the polygonal member to prevent its rotation.
In this case, the polygonal member may be a triangle member provided horizontally, wherein the rotation of the triangle member can be prevented (stopped) when two of three edges of the triangle member are abutted to two abutment members. Of course, as for the preventing means, other various means can be adopted so long as the rotation of the rotary unit is prevented when releasing the cap.
Further, it is also preferred that the rotary unit may be provided with a positioning member to which the cap is to be abutted. According to this arrangement, positioning of the cap can be made by abutting the cap against the positioning member.
The other aspect of the present invention is directed to a method for opening a cap of a container which has a container body and the cap attached thereto, the method being applicable to various containers having caps of various thicknesses and container bodies of various lengths. This method comprises the steps of positioning a cap of a container by raising a container body of the container to cause a reference surface of the cap to be abutted to a cap receiving member, and removing the cap which has been positioned from the container body.
Furthermore, other aspect of the present invention is directed to a method for opening a cap of a container which has a container body and the cap attached thereto, the method being applicable to various containers having caps of various thicknesses and container bodies of various lengths. This method comprises the steps of detecting a reference level of a cap attached to a container body; positioning the cap based on the reference level of the cap; and removing the cap which has been positioned from the container body.
It is to be noted that the cap opening system and method for opening a cap according to the present invention described above can be also applied to containers having similar caps and container bodies as well as containers having the same caps and container bodies.
These and other objects, structures and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent when the following detailed description of the embodiments is considered in conjunction with the appended drawings.
FIGS. 4(A) and (B) are illustrations for explaining the function of two optical beams.
FIGS. 5(A) and (B) are illustrations for explaining the function of the two optical beams.
FIGS. 8(A) and (B) are illustrations for explaining the operation of the rotation preventing member when disposing of the cap.
FIGS. 14(A) and (B) are illustrations which show the relation between two optical beams according to the another embodiment of the present invention.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, a fan-shaped rotary plate (which is a movable member as claimed) 20 is provided above the rack 10. The rotary plate 20 rotates 90 degrees about a rotation axis 22. The rotation of the rotary plate 20 is carried out by a rotary plate driving section not shown in the drawing. In this connection, in
A cap opening head 16 is mounted to one side of the rotary plate 20 in a fixed state. As described later with reference to
In the present embodiment, in the state where the first sensor 18 is at position A and the cap opening head 16 is at position B, when the rotary plate 20 is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, the cap opening head 16 is positioned above a disposal box 24, namely, the cap opening head 16 reaches position C, and in this state, the first sensor 18 is positioned at position B. The rotary plate 20 in this state is represented by the reference character 20A in FIG. 1. Further, the cap opening head 16 in this state is represented by the reference character 16A. Please note that the disposal box 24 is a container for receiving opened caps.
When the above process is described more specifically by focusing the cap opening operation, first, in order to detect the presence or absence of a cap, the first sensor 18 is positioned at position B, and in this state, the cap opening head 16 is, evacuated to position C. Then, the rotary plate 20 is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, and in this state, the first sensor 18 is evacuated to position A, and the cap opening head 16 is positioned above the cap opening position 200. Namely, the cap opening head 16 is positioned at position B. In this state, the cap opening operation is carried out, and then after the cap has been opened, the cap opening head 16 is moved again to position C, and then the removed cap is discarded into the disposal box 24. Then, these alternating rotational operations are repeatedly carried out.
As shown in
As will be described below, in the present embodiment, the container body grasping unit 14 and the cap opening head 16 are provided with various means that enable the cap opening system to be applied to container bodies having various lengths and diameters, and caps having various thicknesses and diameters.
As will be described later with reference to
Further, as shown in
First, a description will be given for the horizontal driving portion 32. A feed screw 40 is coupled to the rotation shaft of a motor 36 via a coupling 38. The feed screw 40 extends in a direction orthogonal to the rack conveying path, and nut blocks 42, 44 are screwed onto the feed screw 40. The right and left sides of the feed screw 40 are formed with mutually opposite directed threads, whereby when the feed screw 40 is rotated in one direction, the nut blocks 42, 44 are moved toward each other, and when the feed screw 40 is rotated in the other direction, the two nut blocks 42, 44 are moved away from each other. In this regard the nut blocks 42, 44 respectively function as pedestals of the stages 30R, 30L.
Next, a description will be given for the vertical driving portion 34. The rotation shaft of a motor 50 is coupled to a spline shaft 54 via a coupling 52. The spline shaft 54 transmits rotational force for moving the two holding mechanisms 64, 66 in the upward and downward directions while allowing movement of the stages 30R, 30L in the horizontal direction. In the example shown in
A bearing 46A and a bearing (for the stage 30L, not shown in the drawing) are provided respectively on the lower portions of the frames 46, 48 through which the spline shaft 54 is inserted. A freely rotatable drive roller 56 and a freely rotatable drive roller (for the stage 30R, not shown in the drawing) are provided respectively on the stages 30L, 30R, and when the spline shaft 54 is rotated, the drive roller 56 of the stage 30L and the drive roller of the stage 30R are rotated. Further, a freely rotatable driven roller 58 and a freely rotatable driven roller (for the stage 30R, not shown in the drawing) are provided respectively on upper portions of the stages 30L, 30R. Further, a belt 60 is suspended between the drive roller 56 and the driven roller 58 of the stage 30L, and a belt 62 is suspended between the drive roller and the driven roller of the stage 30R. Accordingly, when the rotation shaft of the motor 50 is rotated, the belts 60, 62 are moved in accordance with the direction of such rotation, respectively.
The holding mechanisms 64, 66 described above are mounted respectively to the stages 30R, 30L. These holding mechanisms 64, 66 respectively include sliding blocks 68, 70 and holding members 76, 78 having V-shaped chucking grooves formed therein. The sliding blocks 68, 70 respectively slide up and down along a rail 46B provided on the frame 46, and a rail (not shown in the drawing) provided on the frame 48. Further, the sliding blocks 68, 70 respectively include coupling portions 68A, 70A which are fixed to the belts 60, 62. Accordingly, when the belts 60, 62 are moved, the holding mechanisms 64, 66 move up or down.
The holding members 76, 78 are supported on the sliding blocks 68, 70 by means of rod members. In more detail, the holding members 76, 78 are mounted to the sliding blocks 68, 70 through springs 72, 74 arranged around the respective rod members such that a constant biasing force is applied in the grasping direction by the springs 72, 74. Namely, the springs 72, 74 provide a grasping force at the time the container body 12 is grasped and held on both sides thereof by the pair of holding members 76, 78. Of course, in this case, the container body 12 is clamped by operating the horizontal driving portion 32 to move the two stages 30R, 30L toward each other. In this connection, such clamping of the container body 12 is carried out in the state where the holding mechanisms 64, 66 are positioned at a low position, and then after the clamping is carried out, the vertical driving portion 34 is operated to raise the pair of holding mechanisms 64, 66 holding (grasping) the container body 12 upward.
In accordance with the structure shown in
In the structure shown in
Further, as shown in
The optical beams 203, 204 described above are shown in FIG. 4 and
As shown in
In either of the cases described above, it is possible to detect the height of the top surface of the cap 13 individually for each cap, and the position of the cap is determined based on the height of the top surface which is used as a reference level. Therefore, even when the length of the container body 12 and the thickness of the cap 13 vary to a certain extent as described above, such variation can be allowed, and a reliable cap opening operation can be carried out.
Next, an example of the specific structure of the cap opening head 16 shown in
The cap opening head 16 functions as the cap handling apparatus as described above, and the cap opening head 16 is mounted underneath the rotary plate 20.
An outer frame 100 is formed into a casing having a hollow cylindrical shape, and an internal unit 102 is rotatably housed inside the outer frame 10. Namely, the internal unit 102 is held by the outer frame 10 through a bearing mechanism 101 in a freely rotatable manner. The internal unit 102 functions as a rotary unit.
In the internal unit 102, an inner frame 108 having a hollow cylindrical shape forms the frame of the internal unit 102, and a rotation shaft 110 is provided on the center axis of the inner frame 108. An upper end 110B of the rotation shaft 110 is the driving end, and a pulley 113 is coupled to the upper end 110B. A belt 115 is wrapped around the pulley 113, and rotational force of a single drive motor not shown in the drawing is transmitted to the rotation shaft 110 via the belt 115 and the pulley 113. A bearing 108C is provided in a lower portion of the inner frame 108. Further, the bearing 108C holds a lower end 110C of the rotation shaft 110 to enable advancement and retraction, namely, to enable up and down movement in a freely rotatable manner. The rotation shaft 110 is also formed with a screw portion 110A in the form of a trapezoidal screw thread, and a nut member 112 which functions as a cam member is threaded onto the screw portion 110A in a rotation restricted state with respect to the inner frame 108. In the state where advancing and retracting movement, namely, up and down movement of the nut member 112 is allowed, when the rotation shaft 110 undergoes a forward (positive) rotation, the nut member 112 moves in the advancing direction, namely, in the downward direction. On the other hand, when the rotation shaft 110 undergoes reverse rotation, the nut member 112 moves in the retracting direction, namely, in the upward direction. In this connection, an opening 108A is formed in the upper portion of the inner frame 108, and the rotation shaft 110 is inserted through the opening 108A.
As shown in
In this connection, in
In the embodiment shown in
Each arm 120 is formed into a roughly V-shape as shown in
In this connection, a weak biasing force which is normally exerted in the grip release direction can be applied to each arm 120 by a release spring or the like. This kind of spring may be provided between the inclined surface 114 and the driving end 128, or on the rotation shaft 126. In addition to these arrangements, it is possible to adopt various other structures
As shown in
As described above, in accordance with the structure shown in
Further, as will be described later, an operation in which the container body grasping unit 14 lowers the container body 12 downward by a predetermined distance is carried out together with the operation of the cap opening head 16, whereby the removal of the cap 13 from the container body 12 can be carried out together with the rotary movement of the cap 13 described above.
Further, according to the structure described above, the cap opening system can be applied to not only so-called push-in caps but also screw caps.
Next, the operation for disposing of the cap 13 will be described. Abutment members (not shown in the drawings) are provided above the disposal box 24 shown in
FIG. 7 and
In the example structure shown in
As shown by the two operation examples in FIG. 8(A) and FIG. 8(B), two rotation rollers 136, 138 supported by two arms 136A, 138A are provided above the disposal box 24. The distance between these two rotation rollers 136, 138 is set to be slightly shorter than the length of one side of the triangular plate. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 8(A), when the cap opening head 16 is rotated about the rotation axis 202 and positioned above the disposal box 24, the rotation preventing member 111 rotates in accordance with the rotation angle of the rotation preventing member 111, and this rotation is finally prevented by the abutment with the two rotation rollers 136, 138. This is shown in FIG. 8(A) by the reference characters 111A, 111B. In the same way, as shown in FIG. 8(B), even in the case where the rotation preventing member 111 is at a different rotation angle, when a peak portion of the rotation preventing member 111 abuts one of the rotation rollers 136, 138 as shown by the reference character 111C, the rotation preventing member 111 is automatically rotated so that the triangular rotation preventing member 111 falls in between the two rotation rollers 136, 138, and in this state the rotation thereof is prevented. Accordingly, in this state where such rotation is prevented, if the rotation shaft 110 shown in
Next, the operation of the cap opening system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 9.
First, at Step S101, the rack 10 is positioned so that the container body 12 having a cap to be opened is set at the cap opening position as shown in FIG. 1. At Step S102, the container body 12 is grasped and held by the container body grasping unit 14. Then, at Step S103, the held container body 12 is raised upward by the container body grasping unit 14.
At Step S104, a judgment of whether or not the top surface of the cap has been detected, namely, whether or not the optical beam 203 has been interrupted during the raising step is carried out by the second sensor (i.e., the light emitting element 86 and the light receiving element 84) shown in FIG. 3. In the case where the output signal of the second sensor is ON, namely, in the case where the top surface of the cap is detected, the raising of the container body 12 by the container body grasping unit 14 is stopped at Step S105. This stopping position is then utilized as the origin height.
At Step S106, an object detection is carried out from above the container body 12 by the first sensor 18 shown in
Then, at Step S109, the container body 12 at the origin height is raised by a predetermined distance (e.g., 2 cm) upward, whereby the height of the cap is positioned properly with respect to the cap opening head 16.
At Step S110, a cap opening operation is carried out by the cap opening head 16. In this case, during such cap opening operation being carried out, the container body 12 is lowered by a predetermined distance downward by the container body grasping unit 14. Then, the container body 12 is finally lowered to the same height as the stopping position in Step S105.
At Step S111, the output signal of the second sensor is monitored. In the case where the output signal of the second sensor is ON, namely, in the case where the optical beam is interrupted, because there is a possibility that the cap opening operation was not carried out properly, the process proceeds to Step S107.
On the other hand, in the case where the cap opening operation is judged to have been carried out properly at Step S111, then at Step S112, the rotary plate 20 shown in
On the other hand, in the case where the cap opening operation is judged to have been carried out properly at Step S114, the container body grasping unit 14 returns and conveys the opened container body 12 downward to the rack 10. Then, at Step S116, in the case where this process is to be continued, each step from Step S101 is repeatedly carried out.
At Step S109, the container body 12 is raised by a predetermined distance H1 upward, and the cap 13 is positioned properly with respect to the cap opening head 16.
At Step S110, the container body 12 is lowered by a predetermined distance H2 downward while the cap which has been grasped by the cap opening head is being rotated.
At Step S114, after the cap opening operation is carried out, the container body 12 is positioned at the same height as the height in Step S104, and in this state, the optical beam 204 is utilized to carry out object detection. In this case, when an object is not present within a predetermined range G, the cap opening operation is judged to have been carried out properly. At Step S115, the opened container body 12 is lowered downward and returned to the rack.
Of course, the process (operation) shown in FIG. 9 and
In
Next, as shown in
At Step S302 in
Hereinbelow, a description will be made with regard to another embodiment of the cap opening system which is believed to be more practical.
When contrasting the cap opening system of this embodiment with the structure of the first embodiment shown in
The stage 30L includes an erected frame 48 having a rail 48B. An upper slide block 401 and a lower slide block 402 are slidably mounted to the rail 48B. A spring 404 which is a compression spring is provided between the upper slide block 401 and the lower slide block 402 so that the upper slide block 401 is biased upward with respect to the lower slide block 402 to the extent of a certain distance. The lower slide block 402 is formed with a coupling portion 402A, and the lower side block 402 is coupled to a belt 60 by means of the coupling portion 402A. Namely, the lower slide block 402 is a slide block of a driving side, and the upper slide block 401 is a slide block of a driven side, and they are normally moved up and down together.
As shown in
In this embodiment, when the container body 12 is raised upward by the container body handling apparatus, the tip surface (in particular, the peripheral portion thereof) 13A of the cap 13 comes to abutment with the lower surface (abutment surface) of the extending part 412, so that the raising movement of the container body is forcedly stopped. At this time, the cap is positioned with respect to the cap opening head 16 at a proper height, that is it becomes possible to properly clamp the middle portion (circumferential surface) 13B of the cap 13. As is apparent from this structure, this embodiment has an advantage in that it is possible to determine the clamping position (height) based on the reference surface which is the top surface of the cap even though different thickness of the cap and different length of the container body 12. Further, in the example structure shown in the drawing, the cap receiving member 410 is formed with the concave part 414. Therefore, even in the case of a specific type cap in which a protruding portion is formed on the central portion of the top surface of the cap, positioning of the cap 13 can be carried out properly by receiving the protruding portion 13C into the concave part 414. Other structures and operations of this embodiment are basically the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6.
Next, referring to FIG. 13 and
At Step S409, the container body 12 is raised upward again from the state that the container body 12 is being temporarily stopped during the raising operation. At Step 410, a determination is made as to whether or not the abutment sensor 406 shown in
In this state, when the top surface of the cap abuts against the lower surface (that is, the abutment surface) of the cap receiving member 410 as shown in
At this time, the upwardly raising movement of the container body 12 by the container body grasping unit 14 is stopped. Namely, the state that the cap is properly positioned is maintained. The operations after this step is the same as the operations shown in FIG. 9. For example, at Step S216, determination is made as to whether or not the cap is removed using the first sensor 18.
In the foregoing, the structure shown in
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to carry out a cap opening operation with high reliability. Further, according to the present invention, containers and caps having various sizes can be handled.
In addition, the cap opening system of the present invention makes it possible to realize a simple structure which can grasp a cap and then rotate it. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to create a cap grasping force and a rotation force by a single driving source. Furthermore, according to the present invention, a cap is always rotated after a constant grasping force is exerted irrespective of sizes of caps.
Finally, it is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and many changes and additions may be made within the spirit of this invention which is defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-286346 | Sep 2001 | JP | national |
| 2001-286354 | Sep 2001 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4171650 | Cardinal | Oct 1979 | A |
| 4762029 | Chen | Aug 1988 | A |
| 5490321 | Kaneko | Feb 1996 | A |
| 5819508 | Kraft et al. | Oct 1998 | A |
| 6257091 | Cohen et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 0 497112 | Aug 1992 | EP |
| 2014953 | Apr 1970 | FR |
| 06008995 | Jun 1992 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20030061911 A1 | Apr 2003 | US |
