• 专利附录
  • 专利说明
  • 权利要求
  • 类似技术
  • 同族专利
  • 引用文献
  • 法律状态
  • 优先权
    • 专利摘要:

    公开号:NL2010895A
    申请号:NL2010895
    申请日:2013-05-30
    公开日:2013-12-04
    发明作者:Hendrik Brink；Gerrit Heerd
    申请人:Moba Group B V；
    IPC主号:
    专利说明:

    Title: Robot grab
    The present invention relates to a method for picking up, transferring and depositing with a gripper head a substantially rectangular pattern of at least two packaging units to be placed next to and against each other, with each packaging unit having a bottom part and a lid part fitting and closing thereto , for example, but not exclusively, egg cartons or fruit trays, the method comprising - engaging, clamping, and picking up the cartridge with at least two corresponding opposite sides thereof at least two opposite and substantially parallel gripper units, and - having at least one corresponding opposite side thereof, single intermediate support with lower edge, substantially parallel to the gripper units, held clamped between said packing units during transfer.
    Such a method is known from for instance EP 1502884. Described and shown are a gripper head with gripper plates or gripper hands for picking up boxes each with a bottom or bottom part and a lid or lid part provided with a hole-lip closure. Such boxes are, for example, egg boxes for packaging eggs in units 2x3, 2x6, or the like, or also boxes for packaging fruit or vegetables, for example nectarines, tomatoes. Such boxes are usually packaged in layers in larger packaging boxes or also placed in layers on pallets where these layers are composed of patterns of these boxes. In order to facilitate picking up and transferring of such patterns, intermediate supports are provided next to the gripper plates or gripper hands, each having a lower edge which, by means of a specific profile, engages the lids of two adjacent boxes. The gripper units and intermediate supports are controlled from a drive which is accommodated in a housing of the gripper head. For example, the gripper units are pneumatically driven and moved while the intermediate supports are suspended somewhat resiliently, these intermediate supports engaging between the covers when engaged.
    Although this method of engagement is a considerable improvement compared to the situation without intermediate support elements, it has been found that with the very wide variety of types of boxes a corresponding adjustment is also required for such intermediate support elements.
    A very similar method is shown and described in EP1285870. The elements described above for EP 1502884 are also used herein. Furthermore, in EP 1285870 the gripper is provided with a clamping plate which keeps the lids closed, at least during the placing and placing of such patterns of boxes, wherein moreover the lower edges of the intermediate supports are placed under the lid edges of the boxes and thus a better support during ensure picking up, transferring and putting down. The problem of placing such intermediate supports without damaging the boxes, in particular the lid thereof, has been solved, for example, with the device according to EP 1246767. Therein a so-called pattern former is described which, of a row, are all arranged one after the other in the same manner. boxes supplied in a conveyor belt form the desired patterns In this case, the boxes are placed such that small gaps are formed between at least certain boxes of the pattern which suitably allow the placing of the aforementioned intermediate support elements.
    Although in the above documents several ways have been described for picking up and moving patterns of such side-by-side boxes, grippers coupled to robot arms have proved to be insufficient.
    As is generally known, robots are often supplied as separate units and can be used in many situations. In practice, this means that it must be possible to pick up every pattern offered. Since the cartridges are usually presented with the boxes placed close to each other, placing the gripper between the boxes must be positioned to prevent damage to these boxes when pushing down on these boxes. In such a case, products such as eggs or fruits will no longer find adequate protection in such damaged boxes.
    To remedy such a shortage, the method according to the present invention is characterized in that the method further comprises - spatializing said packing units with said intermediate support, - subsequently bringing the packing units together with the gripper units into said closely-fitting pattern of packing units, wherein the intermediate support is placed between the packing units with said bottom edge at the level of said bottom part, - further picking up, transferring and depositing said pattern, and - removing said gripper head.
    The boxes are spaced with great advantage by such a method, whereafter the gripper grips the boxes with the intermediate supports between them, whereafter picking up, transferring and placing can be reliably accomplished.
    In further embodiments of the present invention, the method is characterized in that the packing units are spaced by moving the intermediate support substantially horizontally; that the displacement of the intermediate support is carried out substantially sideways in a direction perpendicular to the said parallel direction; that in the said lateral movement the gripper units are moved sideways outwards and have taken a position in which they are free of the pattern when spacing; and that in the said lateral movement the gripper units are displaced sideways outwards and have taken a position in which at least one of the gripper units acts as a stop during spacing.
    Very suitably, with such a range of movement patterns with these intermediate supports, it is possible to handle many patterns of packaging units prior to further packaging in larger units.
    The invention further provides a robot with a gripper head for picking up, transferring and depositing, a substantially rectangular pattern of at least two packing units to be placed next to and against each other, with each packing unit having a bottom part and a lid part fitting and closing thereto, for example, but not exclusively, egg cartons or fruit trays using the method as described above. It has been found that many such patterns are processed in a very reliable manner.
    The maneuverability of such a robot is deployed with great advantage, in which human operations such as grouping and organizing are modeled and executed. With such a tool, the handling of such packaging units can be considerably facilitated.
    A device for moving and shifting objects such as boxes is shown, for example, in US4741429. However, this publication does not concern spatialization but centering in which the successive steps as indicated above do not occur at all and where product after product, each individually, is treated.
    Moreover, the present invention comprises in a system for sorting and packaging fruit or eggs, provided with a robot, wherein a method as mentioned above is applied.
    It has been found that such a system can reliably and economically process large quantities of eggs and consequently packaging units therefor.
    In the following, the method according to the present invention is explained with reference to a drawing, wherein FIGURES 1-6 schematically show successive steps of a first embodiment of this method in which the method is carried out with a gripper.
    FIGURE 7 illustrates a second exemplary embodiment of the method according to the present invention.
    In these FIGURES, the same numbers in each case indicate the same parts of the gripper shown in each FIGURE.
    FIGURE 1 schematically shows in a side view a gripper 1 which, for example, is attached as a gripper head to an arm of a robot. Such a robot is not shown in any of the FIGURES but is commonly used and is known to any person skilled in the art of packaging and moving technology.
    More particularly, FIGURE 1 shows the position of the gripper 1 and parts thereof, with respect to a cartridge 2 of packing units 20, placed on a support surface 3, for example a support surface of a conveyor belt. The packing units 20 shown are, for example, rectangular egg boxes of the type for packing eggs in nest patterns 2x3, 2x6, etc., each with a bottom or bottom part 21 and a lid or lid part 22 with an outer edge 23 for each lid 22, the lid being customarily closes on a bottom part with well-known hole-Hp closures. The views in these FIGURES show these boxes on their short side, the long sides being substantially pushed against each other and directed parallel to each other.
    The gripper comprises a housing 10 in which, for example, the drive for the movements of gripper units 11 is arranged. With such a drive, the gripper units 11 can be translated and rotated, i.e., moved sideways in or out, and rotated about an axis with the gripper clamping an object to be picked up.
    For the gripper units 11 there are further indicated gripping elements 12, for example fingers or plate-like strips extending in the longitudinal direction (perpendicular to the plane of the FIGURE). In addition, intermediate supports 13 are provided in the housing 10, each with a lower edge 14. These intermediate supports 13 are connected to the housing 10 in such a way that in all cases they also extend downwards when moving downwards. In general, only very small movements of such intermediate supports 13 downwards or sideways will be possible.
    In this FIGURE 1, the gripper 1 is shown in a position above the cartridge, wherein the boxes 20 are substantially against each other and wherein the intermediate supports are positioned substantially above between these boxes 20. The gripper units 11 are turned outwards in such a way that even when the gripper 1 moves downwards, the boxes 20 of this pattern are not touched or clamped. It will be clear to anyone skilled in the art that such a position is a starting position for the further steps to be carried out, to be regarded as a central starting position in which the gripper 1 is centered substantially above the pattern 2 of boxes 20 presented. Such a central starting position will generally be obtained on the basis of detection and detection signals, for example a camera or an ensemble of photocells.
    FIGURE 2 shows a further step of the method according to the invention, in which - the gripper 1 is moved downwards in such a way that the intermediate supports 13 are placed between the covers 22 of the boxes 20, and - in addition, the gripper over a small distance towards on the right, substantially perpendicular to the said parallel direction, has been moved to slightly spacing the two right-hand boxes 20 from the left-most box 20.
    In particular the use of a robot makes such combinations of movements possible in a suitable manner, certainly for situations where there are several supply paths and discharge paths for such packaging units, more particularly a location where such paths come together.
    Furthermore, for the situation shown in FIGURE 2, it is noted that the gripper units 11 have no function in this spacing. However, movements can be adjusted in such a way, for example required by the space available for picking up, that the gripper units 11 act as a stop. Clearly, the gripper units 11 and the intermediate supports 13 are substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of such boxes 20.
    The spacing or spacings obtained in this way will generally not be larger than a few cm, for example a spacing distance between 1 and 2 cm, whereby a spacing or spacing is obtained that is large enough to accommodate the intermediate supports 13 with lower edges 14 without to allow damage to the boxes 20 between the outer edges 23 to a height for the lower edges 14 between the bottom parts 21 of the boxes 20.
    In all FIGURES a pattern 2 is shown that consists of 3 boxes 20 placed next to each other, and accordingly 2 intermediate supports 13 to be able to space each box 20 from its nearest neighbor. It will be clear to any person skilled in the art that for such patterns 2 variants of juxtaposed boxes 20 can be used, whereby for n (with n a natural number> 1) boxes a number of (n - 1) intermediate supports 13 can be used, but also (n - 2) or other possibilities. In all these cases, movements for the robot with robot arm with the gripper 1 attached thereto are then provided with intermediate supports 13, whereby spacing is carried out at least with a single intermediate support 13.
    FIGURE 3 shows a further step of the method according to the invention in which a movement to the left is made with the gripper 1 at the same height, the middle box being moved back against the left box and then both still further to the left over a small distance be moved. A space between the rightmost and the two left boxes is thereby obtained.
    In this situation, the right-most and left-most boxes have obtained a position which is required to provide sufficient space in a subsequent step for inserting the intermediate supports 13 when the gripper 1 is moved further down.
    In FIGURE 4, a final step for spacing takes place in which the gripper makes a final movement to the right, approximately equal to or slightly larger than the previous two steps of sliding, wherein a suitable spacing is formed between the 3 boxes 20 shown.
    FIGURE 5 shows how the gripper 1 has been moved to the left by a very small distance, approximately the same as the central starting position according to FIGURE 1, with the intermediate supports 13 being positioned substantially above the intermediate spaces obtained.
    In FIGURE 6 the step is shown, in which - the gripper 1 is moved downwards from the position according to FIGURE 5, the intermediate supports 13 being moved below the outer edges 23 of the covers 22, and - then the gripper units 11 both slightly inwards are moved as well as turned inwardly so as to merge and clamp the boxes 20 into a close-fitting pattern.
    It is further indicated that the gripper units 11 extend substantially vertically, which may be of importance in cases where such a pattern 2 is to be placed as a layer in a box fitting around it, also called outer box, or box.
    The gripper hands 12 are thereby arranged underneath clampingly around the bottom parts of the two outer boxes 20.
    In FIGURE 7 a further detail of the gripper 1 is shown, wherein a stop 15 is accommodated in the housing 10, which further limits possible small lateral displacements of the intermediate supports 13 when pushing and pushing against the boxes 20 laterally. More in particular, the right-hand intermediate support 13 when pushing to the left is limited in its rotation, and likewise the left-hand support 13 when pushing to the right.
    While in the above description essentially the method for picking up such patterns is attached, it will be clear to anyone skilled in the art that such treatment will be pre-eminently built in and applied to robots. Such a gripper 1 can be connected in a known manner to a robot arm, such a robot being arranged, for example, at a suitably chosen position near a sorting system with associated packaging lines or packaging tracks. As generally known, it concerns systems with which, for example, 180000 eggs can be sorted and further processed. Not only can this be automated in a reliable and economic way, but heavy manual work will also be replaced.
    It will be clear to a person skilled in the art that many variants in the method according to the invention, as well as for fitting it into robots and into systems in which robots find a place, are possible. Main applications for processing egg boxes have been mentioned for this purpose, but for many such packaging units, including for fruit and vegetables, this invention is applicable. Minor changes in the method or device as explained above with respect to the present invention are considered to fall within the scope of the appended claims.
    权利要求:
    Claims (7)
    [1]
    Method for picking up, transferring and depositing with a gripper head a substantially rectangular pattern of at least two packing units to be placed next to and against each other, with each packing unit having a bottom part and a lid part fitting and closing thereto, for example but not exclusively egg cartons or fruit trays, the method comprising, - engaging, clamping, and picking up the cartridge with at least two opposite and substantially parallel gripper units at two corresponding opposite sides thereof, and - having at least a single intermediate support with lower edge, substantially parallel to the gripper units, retained between said packing units during transfer, characterized in that the method further comprises - spacing said packing units with said intermediate support, - subsequently bringing the packing units together with said gripper units to said packing units tightly fitting pattern of wrapping units, wherein the intermediate support is placed between the packing units with said bottom edge at the level of said bottom part, - further picking up, transferring and depositing said pattern, and - removing said gripper head.
    [2]
    Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the packing units are spaced by moving the intermediate support substantially horizontally.
    [3]
    Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the displacement of the intermediate support is carried out substantially sideways in a direction perpendicular to said parallel direction.
    [4]
    Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that in the said lateral movement the gripper units are moved sideways outwards and have taken a position where they are free of the pattern when spacing.
    [5]
    Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that in the said lateral movement the gripper units are moved sideways outwards and have taken a position in which at least one of the gripper units acts as a stop during spacing.
    [6]
    Picking up, transferring and depositing a robot with a gripper head, of a substantially rectangular pattern of at least two packing units to be placed next to and against each other, with each packing unit having a bottom part and a lid part fitting and closing thereto, for example but not exclusively egg cartons or fruit trays wherein the method is used according to any of the preceding claims.
    [7]
    A system for sorting and packaging fruit or eggs, provided with a robot according to claim 6.
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    NL2010895B1|2016-07-15|
    引用文献:
    公开号 | 申请日 | 公开日 | 申请人 | 专利标题
    法律状态:
    2019-01-02| MM| Lapsed because of non-payment of the annual fee|Effective date: 20180601 |
    优先权:
    申请号 | 申请日 | 专利标题
    EP12004173|2012-05-31|
    EP12004173|2012-05-31|
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