JP2008093767A - Picking device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picking member preventing a workpiece from being stuck to a shaking down member applying an energizing force in a direction opposite to a pulling up direction of an objective workpiece. <P>SOLUTION: This picking device grips, transfers, and loads the objective workpiece from a tray storing a plurality of workpieces. It is provided with a plurality of claw members abutting on and gripping the side face of the workpiece, an opening/closing means opening and closing the claw members, a lifting means lifting the workpiece gripped by the claw members, and the shaking down member applying the energizing force in the direction opposite to the picking up direction of the objective work relative to other workpieces existing in the periphery of the objective workpiece when the objective workpiece is gripped by the claw members to be lifted up. Shot blasting treatment is applied to the end face contacted with the workpiece in the shaking down member, and Teflon (R) coating is applied thereon. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a picking apparatus that grabs and transfers a target workpiece from a tray in which a plurality of small workpieces are stored. More specifically, the present invention relates to a vial containing a sample for drug discovery research, a drug, and the like. The present invention relates to a picking apparatus that accurately holds and transfers only a target workpiece from the tray when a workpiece such as a microtube is stored in a tray and stored in a frozen environment.

  Conventionally, picking devices have been used as devices for taking out small-sized workpieces such as vials or microtubes containing drug discovery research samples or medicines from the storage tray or transferring them from the transfer tray to the storage tray. ing.

  This picking device has a plurality of claw members that can be opened / closed and moved up / down by an opening / closing means and a lifting / lowering means, and by these claw members, a plurality of vials and microtubes stored vertically in a tray are provided. The target object is gripped, lifted, and transferred to a predetermined place.

  However, when a workpiece is gripped and transferred using a conventional picking device in accordance with the downsizing and storage density of the workpiece, the workpiece is picked to other workpieces other than the target workpiece placed close to the tray. There is concern that workpieces other than the target workpiece may accidentally fall out or drop out of the tray when the claw member of the apparatus comes into contact and the workpiece is pulled out.

  Furthermore, in the field of drug discovery research, since it is required to store workpieces at a high density in a low-temperature environment, countermeasures against picking mistakes due to icing between workpieces arranged in close proximity are required.

Therefore, the present applicants are picking devices that grip and transfer a target workpiece from a tray in which a plurality of workpieces are stored, and a plurality of claw members that abut against the side surface of the workpiece and grip the claw Opening / closing means for opening / closing the member, lifting / lowering means for raising / lowering the workpiece gripped by the claw member, and other workpieces existing around the target workpiece when the target workpiece is gripped and pulled up by the claw member A picking device having a scraping member for applying an urging force in a direction opposite to the direction in which the target workpiece is lifted has been developed, and a patent has already been obtained.
Japanese Patent No. 3716993

  However, in the picking device having the above-described removal member, when the target workpiece is gripped by the claw member and the workpiece is pulled up by the lifting / lowering means, other workpieces existing around the target workpiece are mistakenly detected. When the removal member that applied the biasing force in the direction opposite to the direction in which the target workpiece is pulled up is stuck to another workpiece that exists in the vicinity of the target workpiece, and the removal member is moved backward. There is concern that it will be raised accidentally. In particular, when the work is stored at a high density in a low temperature environment, there is a further concern that the work adheres to the member to be removed due to freezing.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a picking member that prevents a workpiece from sticking to a scraping member that applies a biasing force in a direction opposite to the direction in which the target workpiece is pulled up.

  The present invention is a picking device for gripping and transferring a target workpiece from a tray in which a plurality of workpieces are stored, and a plurality of claw members that are in contact with and gripped on a side surface of the workpiece, and the claw member is opened and closed. Opening / closing means, lifting / lowering means for raising and lowering the workpiece gripped by the claw member, and when the target workpiece is gripped and lifted by the claw member, the target workpiece is placed on another workpiece around the target workpiece. In a picking apparatus having a scraping member that applies a biasing force in a direction opposite to the pulling direction of the sheet, shot blasting is performed on an end surface of the scraping member that contacts the workpiece, and Teflon (registered trademark) processing is performed thereon. This solves the above problem.

  Here, the shot blasting process in the present invention means that the surface of the base material is roughened by spraying a blast material made of hard steel balls or the like onto the surface of the base material using a compressed air flow or the like. .

  According to the present invention, there is provided a picking apparatus for gripping and transferring a target workpiece from a tray in which a plurality of workpieces are stored, and a plurality of claw members that abut against and grip a side surface of the workpiece, and the claw member. Opening / closing means for opening / closing, lifting / lowering means for lifting / lowering a work gripped by the claw member, and when the target work is gripped and lifted by the claw member, other objects existing around the target work In a picking apparatus having a scraping member that applies a biasing force in a direction opposite to the direction in which the workpiece is lifted, a shot blasting process is performed on the end surface of the scraping member that contacts the workpiece, and Teflon (registered trademark) processing is performed thereon The surface roughness of the contact surface of the scraping member with the workpiece becomes rough, and the scraping member is pressed against the workpiece. A, when viewed microscopically reduced frictional resistance with less likely to vacuum suction state, lifting of the workpiece is prevented.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a picking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, members denoted by reference numeral 110 are claw members that grip the workpiece 200, and are arranged so that the respective claw members abut on the side surface of the workpiece 200 at equal intervals. These claw members 110 can be moved up and down by lifting means, and the interval between the claw members 110 can be expanded and contracted by opening and closing means. The lifting means and the opening / closing means are not particularly illustrated, but the mechanism is not particularly limited as long as the workpiece 200 can be reliably gripped and lifted. For example, an elevating mechanism or an opening / closing mechanism using an electric actuator or an electromagnetic solenoid can be used.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the four claw members 110 are provided so as to be positioned at the respective vertexes of the square in parallel with each other. The number is not limited to this. For example, it is also possible to provide three claw members so as to be positioned at each vertex of the equilateral triangle.

  In the picking apparatus 100 of the present invention, a bottomed cylindrical dropout member 120 having a radius substantially equal to the interval between the workpieces on the storage tray is attached to the picking portion. Opening portions 122 a to 122 d are formed in the dropping member 120 according to the installation position of the claw member 110, so that the opening / closing operation of the claw member 110 is not hindered. And it is installed in the picking part via the mechanism which can apply urging | biasing force in the reverse direction, ie, the vertical direction, of the workpiece | work pulling-up direction. Therefore, when the claw member 110 grips the target workpiece 200, the heads of the four workpieces close to the front, rear, left and right of the target workpiece can be pressed by the cylindrical side wall end surfaces 120a to 120d of the scraping member 120. . Further, the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d of the scraping member 120 are subjected to shot blasting and further subjected to Teflon (registered trademark) processing. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the picking portion of the picking apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is viewed from directly below in order to clearly show the relationship between the scraping member 120, the claw member 110, and the workpiece 200 stored in the storage tray. .

  In FIG. 2, nine circles represented by imaginary lines with reference numerals 200 indicate the positions of the workpieces stored in the storage tray. In particular, 200T shown in the center is gripped by the four claw members 110. Is the intended work. The scraping member 120 has a bottomed cylindrical shape having a radius substantially equal to the interval between the workpieces on the storage tray, and the claw member 110 is aligned with the installation position of the claw member 110 from the periphery toward the center. A rectangular opening is formed so as not to impede the opening and closing operation. As is clear from this figure, when the target workpiece 200T is gripped by the claw member 110, the four cylindrical workpieces in which the cylindrical side wall end surfaces 120a to 120d of the scraping member 120 are close to the front, rear, left and right of the target workpiece. It contacts the heads 200a to 200d. When the target workpiece is pulled up, the abutting state is maintained by the urging force applied to the scraping member 120. In addition, by making the shape of the work upper end surface, for example, the sealing cap concave, the contact area between the removal member 120 and the work upper end surface can be reduced, and the work and the removal member 120 adhere to each other. This further prevents the workpiece from being lifted.

  Next, a mechanism for applying an urging force to the above-described wiping member 120 and a principle for stopping the movement of another workpiece close to the target workpiece by the urging force will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a mechanism for applying a biasing force to the scraping member 120. In this example, the scraping member 120 is urged in the vertical direction by the compression spring 140. Therefore, when the claw member 110 is inserted along the side surface of the target workpiece 200T, the cylindrical side wall end surfaces 120a to 120d (120b and 120d are not shown) of the scraping member 120 are close to the target workpiece 200T. Abutting on the heads of the workpieces 200a to 200d (200b and 200d are not shown), the compression spring 140 is compressed (the state shown in FIG. 3A). Thereafter, the claw member 110 grips the target workpiece 200T by the closing operation by the opening / closing mechanism, and is pulled out by the raising operation by the lifting mechanism. At that time, since the compressed compression spring 140 returns to the original state, the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d and the heads of the works 200a to 200d are brought into contact with each other until the target work 200T is completely pulled out. The state is maintained (the state shown in FIG. 3B). At this time, the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d are subjected to shot blasting and subjected to Teflon (registered trademark) processing thereon. When lifting, the workpiece is prevented from being lifted together. Note that a member denoted by 150 in FIG. 3 is a spacer that defines the moving distance (stroke) of the scraping member 120.

  FIG. 4 shows another example of a mechanism for applying a biasing force to the wiping member 120. In this example, the scraping member 120 is urged in the vertical reverse direction (upward) by the compression spring 140 (the state shown in FIG. 4A). The actuator 160 can apply a larger vertical (downward) biasing force against the biasing force. Then, after the claw member 110 is inserted along the side surface of the target workpiece 200T or in conjunction with the insertion operation, the actuator 160 is operated to move the scraping member 120 in the vertical direction (downward). Thereby, the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d (120b and 120d are not shown in the figure) are applied to the heads of the works 200a to 200d (200b and 200d are not shown in the figure) adjacent to the target work 200T. Touch. Thereafter, the claw member 110 grips the target workpiece 200T by the closing operation by the opening / closing mechanism (the state shown in FIG. 4B), and the workpiece is pulled out by the raising operation by the lifting mechanism. At that time, by maintaining a state in which an urging force is applied to the scraping member 120 by the actuator 160, the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d (120b and 120d are used until the target workpiece 200T is completely pulled out. , Not shown) and the heads of the workpieces 200a to 200d (200b and 200d are not shown) are maintained. Thereafter, the scraping member 120 is released from the bias by the actuator 160 and rises, but the cylindrical side wall end faces 120a to 120d are subjected to shot blasting and subjected to Teflon (registered trademark) processing thereon. Therefore, it is prevented that the workpiece is attracted and the workpiece is prevented from being pulled up together.

  In the above-described picking apparatus, a member having a bottomed cylindrical shape having a radius substantially equal to the interval between the workpieces on the storage tray is used as the scraping member, but the movement of other workpieces close to the target workpiece is used. If it is a thing of the shape which can be stopped, it will not be restricted to this. For example, by using the cross-shaped member 130 shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to reduce the weight of the member and reduce the manufacturing cost.

  The picking device according to the present invention restrains other workpieces existing in the vicinity at the time of picking of a target workpiece with a scraping member, and the end surface of the scraping member is subjected to shot blasting and Teflon (registered trademark) processing. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the workpiece from sticking to the scraping member and pulling it up, so that the industrial applicability in the field of picking an expensive workpiece is very large.

It is a principal part perspective view of the picking apparatus which shows one Example of this invention. It is a top view when the picking part of the picking apparatus is viewed from directly below. It is a conceptual diagram explaining the mechanism which urges | biases the dropping member of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram explaining another mechanism which urges the dropping member of this invention. It is a top view explaining another shape of the dropping member of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Picking device 110 ... Claw member 120, 130 ... Distraction member 140 ... Compression spring 150 ... Spacer 160 ... Actuator 200 ... Workpiece

Claims (1)

A picking device for gripping and transferring a target workpiece from a tray in which a plurality of workpieces are stored, a plurality of claw members that contact and grip a side surface of the workpiece, and an opening / closing means for opening and closing the claw member; Lifting means for moving up and down the work gripped by the claw member, and when the target work is gripped and lifted by the claw member, the lifting direction of the target work is set to another work around the target work. In a picking device having a scraping member that applies a biasing force in the reverse direction,
A picking apparatus, wherein a shot blasting process is performed on an end surface of the scraping member that comes into contact with the workpiece, and a Teflon (registered trademark) process is performed on the end surface.

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