Patent Application
20210253289
The present disclosure relates to a measurement control device used for controlling a packaging device or the like, a packaging device equipped with the measurement control device, and a measurement control method.
In a conventional horizontal pillow type packaging device, a “film feed amount”, an “operation of a seal part (an operation timing and an operation speed)”, and an “operation of a supply conveyor” are set according to an article to be packaged based on data registered in advance as product information before an operation thereof or by creating the data.
Therefore, when the operation starts by performing setting according to a certain article to be packaged and then it is intended to package another article to be packaged having a different size, it is necessary to temporarily stop the packaging device and to reset the settings each time according to a size of each of the other articles to be packaged.
In this way, when the settings are changed every time the article to be packaged is changed, it takes a lot of time each time, and waste of a film occurs due to an adjustment of the film when the settings area changed.
In order to avoid frequent re-settings as described above, a setting may be made according to the largest one among the articles to be packaged, and a small article to be packaged may also be packaged with a film having the same size. In this case, along with a large amount of waste in the film, the small article to be packaged is present in a large film, and thus a problem that an “appearance” of the packaging is deteriorated is caused.
An invention described in Patent Literature 1 below (
The pillow type packaging device described in Patent Literature 1 is a pillow type packaging device including a packaging device main body 50, and a supply conveyor C which is disposed upstream of the packaging device main body 50 and supplies an article G to be packaged to the packaging device main body 50. The pillow type packaging device includes an article detection sensor 60 which detects a length of the article G to be packaged, and a control device 70 which calculates an operation pattern of a sealing means of a top seal part, an operation timing, and a length of a film required for packaging based on the length of the article G to be packaged calculated based on data detected by the article detection sensor 60, and controls an operation of the sealing unit based on the calculated results thereof.
According to the pillow type packaging device described in Patent Literature 1, even when articles G to be packaged having different lengths are continuously supplied to the packaging device main body 50, data regarding the length of the article G to be packaged can be detected for each of the articles G to be packaged by the article detection sensor 60, and control can be performed such that top sealing is performed with the operation pattern and operation timings of the sealing unit of the top seal part suitable for the article G to be packaged based on the length of the film required for packaging calculated based on the detected data.
Therefore, even when articles G to be packaged having different lengths continuously enter, or even when articles G to be packaged having the same long or short length continuously enter, film packaging with an optimum length for all articles G to be packaged can be optimally performed.
Thus, it is not necessary to perform setting for each of the different articles G to be packaged, film is not wasted, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed.
However, in the pillow type packaging device described in Patent Literature 1, the article detection sensor 60 is disposed in the horizontal direction to detect the length of the article G to be packaged. Therefore, for example, when an article G to be packaged having a shape shown in
Therefore, there is a possibility that a problem as shown in
That is, in the case of packaging crops of the same variety or bread of the same type, such as agricultural products and bread, which have different sizes and shapes for each of articles to be packaged, even in the pillow type packaging device described in Patent Literature 1, there remains a problem that it is difficult to optimally perform optimal film packaging.
Patent Literature 1
Japanese Patent No. 5325179
The present disclosure has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides a measurement control device, a packaging device equipped with the measurement control device, and a measurement control method capable of optimally performing optimum film packaging without wasting film and capable of performing film packaging with a good appearance, even in a case in which articles to be packaged that have different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged.
In order to achieve the above-described object, a measurement control device (1) according to the present disclosure is a measurement control device used for controlling a packaging device, in which
a sensor unit in which a detection axis of a sensor is disposed in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction orthogonal to a traveling direction in which an article to be packaged is conveyed is connected to a measurement control device main body, the measurement control device including:
According to the measurement control device (1), since the detection axis of the sensor is disposed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, regardless of the shape of the article to be packaged, the size and the shape of the article to be packaged including a width, a height, and a length (including a contour length) can be accurately calculated. Thus, even in the case in which articles to be packaged having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Further, in the measurement control device (1), a measurement control device (2) according to the present disclosure may further include:
According to the measurement control device (2), it is possible to realize accurate control based on accurate measurement, and thus even in the case in which articles to be packaged having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Also, in a measurement control device (3) according to the present disclosure, in any one of the measurement control devices (1) or (2), the sensor unit may be configured by selecting one or more of an optical sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a mechanical sensor, and an image pickup sensor.
According to the measurement control device (3), it is possible to select an optimal sensor according to a type of the article to be packaged and a mounting situation, and it is possible to promote accurate detection of the article to be packaged.
Also, a packaging device according to the present disclosure is a packaging device equipped with the measurement control device described in any one of the measurement control devices (1) to (3).
According to the packaging device (1), since the detection axis of the sensor is disposed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, regardless of the shape of the article to be packaged, the size and the shape of the article to be packaged including the width, the height, and the length can be accurately calculated. Thus, even in the case in which articles having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Further, a measurement control method (1) according to the present disclosure is a measurement control method in the measurement control device described in any one of the measurement control devices (1) to (3), the method including:
According to the measurement control method (1), regardless of the shape of the article to be packaged, the size and shape of the article to be packaged including the width, the height, and the length can be accurately calculated. Thus, even in the case in which articles to be packaged having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Further, in the measurement control method (1), a measurement control method (2) according to the present disclosure may further include:
According to the measurement control method (2), it is possible to realize accurate control based on accurate measurement, and thus even in the case in which articles to be packaged having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Hereinafter, embodiments of a measurement control device and a packaging device equipped with the measurement control device according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.
Two sensors 1A and 1A are disposed in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a traveling direction in which an article G to be packaged is conveyed, one sensor (1B) is disposed in a vertical direction, and a sensor unit 1 is configured of the sensors 1A and 1A and the sensor 1B.
An optical type sensor or another type, for example, an ultrasonic sensor type or a mechanical type (a limit switch type) can be adopted as the sensors constituting the sensor unit 1. Further, in addition to an optical sensor, an image pickup device type sensor which can recognize an image can be used as the optical type sensor.
With such an arrangement, a width of the article G to be packaged can be accurately detected by the two sensors 1A and 1A disposed in the horizontal direction. Further, a height of the article G to be packaged can be accurately detected by the sensor 1B disposed in the vertical direction. When a calculation described later is performed based on the detected data, the width, the height, and the length of the article G to be packaged, in other words, an overall shape of the article G to be packaged can be accurately obtained by the calculation.
A measurement control device main body 2 receives a detection signal from the sensor unit 1, calculates the shape of the article G to be packaged, determines a control amount (a film length, a cut position, and the like) from the calculation results thereof, and drives a motor M on the packaging device main body 5 side based on the control amount thereof.
The calculation unit 21 performs various calculations, but in the case of the present embodiment, the calculation unit 21 is further divided into functional blocks, and is configured to include:
The I/O unit 2B to which the sensor unit 1 is connected is connected to the local bus controller 22, and the local bus controller 22 is connected to the calculation unit 21. The local bus controller 22 controls a bus line which connects each of the functional blocks inside the PLC 2A, and controls the bus line so that functions of the PLC 2A are fully exhibited.
The calculation unit 21 is connected to the control command unit 23, and the control command unit 23 is connected to the local bus controller 22. The calculation unit 21 has a function of performing almost all of various calculation processes inside the PLC 2A, and performs many calculation processes including the above-described calculation processes.
The local bus controller 22 is also connected to a drive control unit 24 outside the PLC 2A, and the drive control unit 24 is connected to the drive unit 25. The drive unit 25 is configured to drive a cutter 28 and the like.
First, In Step S1, acquisition of an information signal from the sensor unit 1 start.
When the acquisition of the information signal from the sensor unit 1 is completed in Step S1, the process proceeds to Step S2, and in Step S2, the information signal from the sensor unit 1 is converted into a distance.
When the information signal from the sensor unit 1 is converted into a distance in Step S2, the process proceeds to Step S3, and the width and the height of the article G to be packaged are calculated from the distance information converted in Step S2.
Next, the process proceeds to step S4, and the width, the height and the length (including a contour length), that is, an overall shape and profile of the article G to be packaged are calculated from the width and height information of the article G to be packaged obtained in Step S3.
Next, the process proceeds to step S5, and a process of calculating a control amount (a film length, a determination of a cut position, a drive amount of the drive unit 25, and the like) with respect to the drive unit 25 is performed based on the overall shape and profile information of the article G to be packaged obtained in Step S4.
Next, the process proceeds to step S6, a control command is created based on the calculation results obtained in Step S5, then the process proceeds to Step S7, an output process of the control command is performed in Step S7, and then the process operation is terminated.
When the article G to be packaged having the shape shown in the drawing is sensed, it is impossible to obtain an accurate length of the article G to be packaged with the conventional one (refer to
According to the measurement control device according to the above-described embodiment, since the sensor unit is disposed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, it is possible to accurately calculate the size and shape of the article to be packaged including the width, the height, and the length (including the contour length). Thus, even in the case in which articles to be packaged having different sizes and shapes, such as agricultural products and bread, are packaged, it is possible to optically perform optimal film packaging, and film packaging with a good appearance can be performed without wasting the film.
Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above in detail, the above description is merely an example of the present disclosure in all respects. Needless to say, various improvements and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the number of sensors 1B disposed in the vertical direction is one, but in another embodiment, a plurality of sensors 1B may be disposed, and detection accuracy due to the sensor 1B can be further improved by disposing the plurality of sensors 1B.
The present disclosure can be widely used in industrial fields such as packaging lines for film packaging of an article to be packaged, or a packaging system including the packaging lines.
1 Sensor unit
1A Sensor (horizontal direction)
1B Sensor (vertical direction)
2 Measurement control device main body
2A PLC
2B I/O unit
21 Calculation unit
21
a Sensor signal conversion unit
21
b Width/height calculation unit
21
c Length/width/height/calculation unit
21
d Control amount calculation unit
22 Local bus controller
23 Control command unit
24 Drive control unit
25 Drive unit
26 Cutter
M Motor
5 Packaging device main body
50 Packaging device main body
60 Article detection sensor
70 Control device
C Supply conveyance
G Article to be packaged
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-002770 | Jan 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2019/008827 | 3/6/2019 | WO | 00 |
