FEEDING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR FEEDING SMALL PARTS

Abstract

The invention relates to a feeding device (1) for feeding small parts, in particular closure elements, comprising a vibrating spiral conveyor (20) having an outlet (200), a feed rail (20), which is arranged downstream of the outlet in the feed direction, and a vibratory drive (201, 211, 221), wherein, by means of the vibratory drive (201, 211, 212), vibrations can be applied to the vibrating spiral conveyor (20) to move the small parts in the direction of the outlet (200) and to the feed rail (21) to move the small parts along the feed rail (21), wherein an intermediate rail (22) is arranged between the outlet (200) of the vibrating spiral conveyor (20) and the feed rail (21), wherein vibrations can be applied to the intermediate rail (22) by means of the vibratory drive (201, 211, 221) to move the small parts along the intermediate rail (22) in the direction of the feed rail (21), wherein a monitoring device (3), associated with the intermediate rail (22), is provided, wherein the monitoring device (3) is designed to detect an abnormality and/or disturbance in the movement of the small parts along the intermediate rail (22), and wherein the feeding device is designed to temporarily interrupt the application of vibrations to the intermediate rail (22) and to the vibrating spiral conveyor (20) to rectify an abnormality and/or disturbance without interrupting the application of vibrations to the feed rail (21) for moving the small parts along the feed rail (21). The invention further relates to a method for feeding small parts.

Claims

1. A feeding device for feeding small parts, comprising a vibrating spiral conveyor having an outlet, a feed rail, which is arranged downstream of the outlet in the feed direction, and a vibratory drive, wherein, by means of the vibratory drive, vibrations can be applied to the vibrating spiral conveyor to move the small parts in the direction of the outlet and to the feed rail for moving the small parts along the feed rail, wherein an intermediate rail is arranged between the outlet of the vibrating spiral conveyor and the feed rail, wherein vibrations can be applied to the intermediate rail by means of the vibratory drive to move the small parts along the intermediate rail in the direction of the feed rail, wherein a monitoring device, associated with the intermediate rail, is provided, wherein the monitoring device is designed to detect an abnormality and/or disturbance in the movement of the small parts along the intermediate rail, and wherein the feeding device is designed to temporarily interrupt the application of vibrations to the intermediate rail and to temporarily interrupt the vibrating spiral conveyor in order to rectify an abnormality and/or disturbance in the movement of the small parts along the intermediate rail, which is detected by the monitoring device, without interrupting the application of vibrations to the feed rail for moving the small parts along the feed rail.

2. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a vibratory drive is associated with the vibrating spiral conveyor, the feed rail and/or the intermediate rail in each case.

3. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring device comprises a camera.

4. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the feeding device comprises a manipulator, wherein a detected abnormality and/or disturbance can be rectified by the manipulator, wherein the manipulator can be moved via a central machine control, a decentralized manipulator control and/or via a manually actuable control for rectifying the detected abnormality and/or disturbance.

5. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a cover is provided over a transition region between the vibrating spiral conveyor and the intermediate rail.

6. A method for feeding small parts by means of a vibrating spiral conveyor having an outlet and a feed rail, which is arranged downstream of the outlet in the feed direction, wherein, by means of a vibratory drive, vibrations are applied to the vibrating spiral conveyor to move the small parts in the direction of the outlet and to the feed rail to move the small parts along the feed rail, wherein an intermediate rail is arranged between the outlet of the vibrating spiral conveyor and the feed rail, wherein vibrations are applied to the intermediate rail by means of the vibratory drive to move the small parts along the intermediate rail in the direction of the feed rail, wherein the intermediate rail is monitored in an automated manner by a monitoring device, wherein an abnormality and/or disturbance which occurs in the movement of the small parts along the intermediate rail is detected by the monitoring device, wherein, to rectify an abnormality and/or disturbance detected by the monitoring device during the feed of the small parts, the application of vibrations to the intermediate rail and to the vibrating spiral conveyor is temporarily interrupted without interrupting the application of vibrations to the feed rail for moving the small parts along the feed rail.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the monitoring device comprises a camera, wherein an image recorded by the camera is evaluated to detect an abnormality and/or disturbance.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein a detected abnormality and/or disturbance is rectified by a manipulator, wherein the manipulator is moved via a central machine control, a decentralized manipulator control and/or via a manually actuable control to rectify the detected abnormality and/or disturbance.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the manipulator is moved from an idle position into a maintenance position upon detecting an abnormality and/or disturbance, wherein the application of vibrations to the intermediate rail and to the vibrating spiral conveyor is interrupted before, during or after the movement of the manipulator into the maintenance position, the abnormality and/or disturbance at the intermediate rail is localized after the interruption to the application of vibrations, and the manipulator is moved from the maintenance position to rectify the detected abnormality and/or disturbance after the localization of the abnormality and/or disturbance.

10. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the feeding device is a device for feeding closure elements.

11. The feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring device comprises a camera and an evaluation unit is associated with the camera, wherein the evaluation unit is designed to evaluate an image recorded by the camera using an artificial intelligence model (AI model).

12. The method according to claim 6, wherein the method is for feeding closure elements.

13. The method according to claim 6, wherein the monitoring device comprises a camera, wherein an image recorded by the camera is evaluated to detect an abnormality and/or disturbance, using an artificial intelligence model (AI model).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Further advantages and aspects of the invention are described in the claims and in the description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention, which is explained below with reference to the figures, in which:

[0034] FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of a feeding device comprising a feed unit, a monitoring device and a manipulator and

[0035] FIG. 2 shows a schematic illustration of the feed unit of the feeding device according to FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0036] FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of a feeding device 1 for feeding small parts (not shown in FIG. 1), in particular for feeding closure elements. The illustrated feeding device 1 comprises a feed unit 2, a monitoring device 3 and a manipulator 4. FIG. 2 shows the feed unit 2 in isolation.

[0037] The feed unit 2 comprises a vibrating spiral conveyor 20 having an outlet 200, a feed rail 21, which is arranged downstream of the outlet 200 in the feed direction, and an intermediate rail 22 arranged between the outlet 200 of the vibrating spiral conveyor 20 and the feed rail 21. The outlet 200, the intermediate rail 22 and the feed rail 22 each comprise a plurality of parallel-arranged paths, along which small parts can be moved in parallel in the feed direction. The number of paths can be appropriately specified by a person skilled in the art depending on the particular application.

[0038] The illustrated feed unit 2 comprises three vibratory drives 201, 211, 221, wherein vibrations can be applied to the vibrating spiral conveyor 20 by means of a first vibratory drive 201 to move the small parts in the direction of the outlet 200, vibrations can be applied to the feed rail 21 by means of a second vibratory drive 211 to move the small parts along the feed rail 21, and vibrations can be applied to the intermediate rail 22 by means of a third vibratory drive 211 to move the small parts along the intermediate rail 22 in the direction of the feed rail 21.

[0039] The feeding device 1 is designed to temporarily interrupt the excitations of vibrations to the vibrating spiral conveyor 20 and to the intermediate rail 22 to rectify an abnormality and/or disturbance in the feeding device 1, for example by controlling the first vibratory drive 201 and the third vibratory drive 211 accordingly, without interrupting the excitation of vibrations to the feed rail 21 by means of the second vibratory drive 2 for the movement of the small parts along the feed rail 21.

[0040] It is thus possible to rectify an abnormality and/or disturbance which occurs at the intermediate rail 22 after stopping a vibration of the intermediate rail 22, wherein, by maintaining the movement of the small parts along the feed rail 21, it is possible to rectify the disturbance without interrupting feeding of the small parts to a subsequent process.

[0041] The feeding device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 further comprises a monitoring device 3, which is associated with the intermediate rail 22 andin the embodiment shownhas a camera 30. The monitoring device 3 is designed to detect an abnormality and/or disturbance in the movement of the small parts along the intermediate rail 22. For this purpose, images can be recorded by the camera 30, which images are evaluated in an evaluation unit 31. In an embodiment, the evaluation unit 31 is designed to evaluate images recorded by the camera 30 using an AI model.

[0042] A detected abnormality and/or disturbance may be rectified manually or by the manipulator 4. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, a manually actuable control 40 is provided, wherein a person skilled in the art can move the manipulator 4 using the manually actuable control 40 to rectify the detected abnormality and/or disturbance. In an embodiment, by limiting the movement distances of the manipulator 4, it is ensured that collisions between the manipulator 4 and components arranged in the environment of the feeding device 1 and/or components of the feeding device 1 are avoided.

[0043] Alternatively, in the illustrated exemplary embodiment, a detected abnormality or disturbance can be communicated to a control 42, wherein the manipulator 4 can be moved via the control 42 to rectify the detected abnormality and/or disturbance. The control 42 is, for example, a central machine control of a filling and/or closure system or a decentralized manipulator control.

[0044] The illustrated feeding device 1 allows the feed unit 2 to be monitored for detecting abnormality and/or disturbance and, if necessary, to rectify a detected abnormality and/or disturbance in a fully automated manner, without human intervention. The rectification of the detected abnormality and/or disturbance is possible without shutting down the filling and/or closure arrangement.