Conveyor device, conveyor system, zone controller, CAD device, and method for manufacturing conveyor device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10322883-B2
Application number	US-201515312243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2015
Priority date	Nov 18, 2014
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

An object is to provide a conveyor that enables the number of information read-out devices to be largely reduced and that can be easily constructed. An object identifying device ( 45 ) is installed in the first zone. The object identifying device ( 45 ) is a bar code reader. Information read by the bar code reader is transmitted to a host control device ( 46 ). The host control device ( 46 ) identifies an object from information described in a bar code, makes an inquiry about a conveyance destination of an object, transmits the address of the target place to a zone controller ( 10 ) of the second zone, and inputs the address to a conveyance destination storage unit of the zone controller ( 10 ) of the second zone. The conveyance destination information input to the conveyance destination storage unit is passed on to the downstream zone controller ( 10 ) with the conveyance of the object.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A conveyor for conveying an object from a start position to a target place,
the conveyor comprising:
a plurality of zones into which the conveyer is divided, the object being conveyed across the zones;
at least one object identifying device; and
an initial information transmitting unit transmitting a conveyance destination information of the object itself to any of the zones,
each of the zones comprising:
a linear conveying zone that linearly conveys the object;
a conveying direction changing zone selecting a conveying direction of the object to send out the object in the selected conveying direction;
a conveyance destination storage unit temporarily storing the conveyance destination information;
an information receiving unit receiving the conveyance destination information from an upstream zone; and
an information transmitting unit transmitting the conveyance destination information to a downstream zone,
wherein the conveyor transfers the conveyance destination information from the upstream zone to the downstream zone as an incident of detected movement of the object across the zones.

2. The conveyor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the linear conveying zone individually has power to allow the linear conveying zone to be driven and stopped independently from the other zones,
wherein the linear conveying zone includes a load presence sensor that detects whether the object is present thereon, and
wherein the conveyance destination information stored in the conveyance destination storage unit is deleted and/or rewritten on the basis of whether the linear conveying zone has been driven and whether the load presence sensor has detected presence of the object.

3. The conveyor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the linear conveying zone individually has power to allow the linear conveying zone to be driven and stopped independently from the other zones,
wherein the linear conveying zone includes a load presence sensor that detects whether the object is present thereon, and
wherein the conveyance destination information stored in the conveyance destination storage unit is rewritten when the linear conveying zone has been driven and the load presence sensor has changed from a state of not detecting the presence of the object to a state of detecting the presence of the object.

4. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein a unique address is set to each of the zones.

5. The conveyor according to claim 4 , wherein the unique address is automatically settable.

6. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor further comprises a display device that displays a layout of the conveyor.

7. The conveyor according to claim 6 , wherein the conveyor allows taking in drawing information created by another device to create a layout to be displayed on the display device.

8. The conveyor according to claim 1 ,
wherein each of the zones comprises:
a load presence sensor that detects whether the object is present thereon; and
a zone controller to which a signal of the load presence sensor is input,
the zone controller controlling one or more of the zones,
the zone controller comprising the conveyance destination storage unit, the information receiving unit, and the information transmitting unit.

9. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor has any of the following functions:
(1) a number collecting function of conveying the objects to the downstream side when a specified number of the objects have been collected in some of the zones;
(2) a ratio branching function of distributing the objects to a plurality of the conveyance destinations to which the objects can be conveyed; and
(3) a congestion avoiding function of making the object take a detour when there is a congestion in the conveyance destination.

10. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor further comprises a conveyance destination selecting unit identifying the conveyance destination of the object with the object identifying device, wherein the initial information transmitting unit transmits information about the identified conveyance destination to any of the zones.

11. The conveyor according to claim 10 , wherein the conveyance destination selecting unit comprises a route determining unit for determining a conveying route, and the initial information transmitting unit transmits information about the conveying route to any of the zones.

12. The conveyor according to claim 10 , wherein when there are a plurality of conveying routes, the conveyance destination selecting unit is capable of performing a search for the shortest conveying route among the conveying routes.

13. The conveyor according to claim 10 , wherein when there are a plurality of conveying routes, the conveyance destination selecting unit is capable of performing a search for one of the conveying routes that enables the object to arrive at the conveyance destination within the shortest time among the conveying routes.

14. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein information about the conveyance destination includes the following information:
(1) information about the zone where the conveying direction is changed, and the conveying direction in the zone.

15. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein each of the zones has a length that enables the zone to place at least one object thereon.

16. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein some or all of the linear conveying zones are capable of conveying the object in both forward and reverse directions.

17. The conveyor according to claim 1 , further comprising a total length measuring device that measures total length of the object.

18. A conveyor system comprising the conveyor according to claim 1 and another equipment, or comprising a plurality of the conveyors,
wherein the conveyor system comprises individual control devices that individually control the conveyor and the equipment included in the conveyor system and an integrated controller that integrally controls the individual control devices included in the conveyor system.

19. A CAD device that designs the conveyor according to claim 1 , the CAD device comprising:
a layout creating unit for creating a layout of the conveyor that comprises the zones;
a layout displaying unit for displaying the layout;
an information inputting unit for writing at least following information; and
an information outputting unit for outputting the information:
(1) information about a position of the zone;
(2) information about an operation of the zone.

20. The CAD device according to claim 19 , wherein the information includes information identifying an adjacent zone.

21. A method for manufacturing the conveyor according to claim 1 , comprising:
manufacturing a conveying module that comprises: a control device having a writable memory; and a mechanical structure of each of the zones, the control device and the mechanical structure being integrated with each other;
writing information written into a CAD device according to claim 19 or 20 into the memory of the conveying module;
wherein the CAD device that designs the conveyor comprises:
a layout creating unit for creating a layout of the conveyor that comprises the zones;
a layout displaying unit for displaying the layout;
an information inputting unit for writing at least following information; and
an information outputting unit for outputting the information:
(1) information about a position of the zone;
(2) information abou

Assignees

• Itoh Denki Co Ltd
• Itoh Denki Co

Inventors

• Itoh Kazuo
• Tachibana Toshiyuki
• Takanaga Akira
• Kujihashi Yoshiyuki

Classifications

• B65G13/07

  having endless driving elements · CPC title

• B65G43/08 Primary

  Control devices operated by article or material being fed, conveyed or discharged {(and controlling the discharging devices B65G47/42)} · CPC title

• B65G13/08

  of curved form; with branch-offs · CPC title

• B65G47/766

  Adjustable ploughs or transverse scrapers · CPC title

• B65G43/10 Primary

  Sequence control of conveyors operating in combination · CPC title