February 2015 Archives

We adopted a mechanism (escapement) to separate workpieces randomly accumulated for the Bingo Machine.

This is a mechanism whereby the holder to separate workpieces placed on the rotating disk separates each workpiece and supplies it to the next process ([Fig.1]).
In this example, we adopted a rotary stage (made by SMC) to perform the separation by rotary motion (Photo 1).

There are two types of separation method: (1) cut-off-type separation and (2) unhook-type separation.
This example is based on the (1) cut-off-type separation method where the workpiece to be separated will be forcibly detached from the flow of parts.

[Fig.2] shows an example of the rotary separation mechanism that is different from the Bingo Machine.

The term "escapement" refers to a device that feeds out supply parts (workpieces) one by one that are consecutively accumulated in the chute area such as a conveyance rail.

The escapement must be able to perform a stable and steady feeding task according to the number of workpieces accumulated in a chute as well as the feeding speed.

For the chute method of the Bingo Machine, we have adopted a simple structure which utilizes the rolling motion on the inclined surface by self-weight. Therefore, we also design the escapement by determining the appropriate dimension of the color ball guide width.

The width of the color ball holder mounted on the hoisting mechanism needs to match the size of a color ball. When this color ball holder is lifted up, the next color ball accumulated by self-weight will be pushed back.

[Fig.2] shows the representative example of the escapement mechanism.

Reference: Dictionary on Factory Automation & Labor Saving