KR20210123208A - Relay device - Google Patents

Abstract

As a relay device equipped with a relay having a mechanical contact point, the relay device allows a reset operation of a coefficient value not to be required when replacing a relay, and allows to accurately determine a replacement timing and the like even in a case of replacing the relay that has been used up to the middle. The relay device is configured with: a relay mounting substrate (20) mounted with a relay (21) and capable of being replaced with the relay (21) mounted thereon; a non-volatile memory (22) installed on relay mounting substrate (20); and a microprocessor (MPU) (32) provided separately from the relay mounting substrate (20) and writing the information related to the relay (21) to the non-volatile memory (EEPROM) (22).

Description

relay device {RELAY DEVICE}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a relay device having a relay having a mechanical contact interchangeably.

Relays (relays) having mechanical contacts are used in various devices and are used for opening/closing or blocking the main power supply in robot controllers, etc. However, a relay having a mechanical contact has a lifespan due to abrasion of the contact, etc., and needs to be replaced when the opening/closing operation is performed a predetermined number of times or when the driving time reaches a predetermined time. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the operation life of the relay by managing the number of times and driving time of the switching operation by the relay. Patent Document 1, as a technique for managing the number of opening/closing operations in a relay, counts the number of opening/closing of the relay inside the control unit that controls the relay, and the counting value reaches a predetermined estimated lifetime value Disclosed is to provide a counting means for outputting a detection signal when this is done. Similarly, Patent Document 2 discloses a counter means for counting the number of times the relay contact is opened and closed, a current flowing through the relay contact and a current voltage measuring means for measuring the voltage applied to the contact, and the life of the relay based on the value of the measured current and voltage. A life data correction means for correcting the data for Disclosed is a relay device provided with a life count estimation calculation means for outputting a signal instructing to replace the .

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-255003 Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. Hei 5-11277

There are techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 as a technique for knowing the replacement timing of a relay having a mechanical contact. It is necessary to reset, and if the reset operation is forgotten, it is impossible to know when to replace the relay properly. In particular, in the case of replacing a relay that has already been used until the middle, the count value does not indicate the true number of opening/closing operations, so it is impossible to accurately estimate the life of the relay after replacement, and the replacement timing cannot be determined.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a relay device that eliminates the need to reset the count value when replacing the relay, and can determine the replacement timing or the like even when replacing the relay with a used relay.

A relay device according to the present invention is a relay device including a relay having a mechanical contact, a relay mounting board having a relay mounted thereon and exchangeable in a state where the relay is mounted, a nonvolatile memory provided on the relay mounting board, and a relay mounting board It has a control means provided separately from the relay to write information about the relay to the nonvolatile memory.

In the relay device of the present invention, the relay is mounted on a relay mounting board that can be replaced by detachment or the like, and a nonvolatile memory is provided on the relay mounting board. As a result, for example, if information unique to a relay, such as a count value, is stored in a nonvolatile memory mounted on the same relay mounting board as the relay, and the relay is replaced with the relay mounting board as a whole, relay replacement There is no need to perform a reset operation at the time of operation. Moreover, even when replacing with a relay that has been used until the middle, if the operation history of the relay up to that point is stored in the nonvolatile memory, it is possible to determine the replacement timing and the like.

In the relay device of the present invention, it is preferable that the information written in the nonvolatile memory includes maintenance data related to the life of the relay. The maintenance data includes, for example, the number of times the relay contacts are opened and closed, the driving time during which the relay is operated, and the like. Information on a failure occurring in the relay (eg, an error code corresponding to the failure) may also be written into the nonvolatile memory as maintenance data. When the maintenance data is written in the nonvolatile memory, it is possible to accurately determine the relay replacement timing. In this case, it is preferable that the control means reads the maintenance data from the nonvolatile memory, updates the maintenance data in accordance with the operation status of the relay from when the maintenance data was previously written into the nonvolatile memory, and writes the maintenance data into the nonvolatile memory. In this way, when the maintenance data is updated and stored in the nonvolatile memory, it is possible to more accurately determine the relay replacement time.

When the updated maintenance data is stored in the nonvolatile memory, the control means may output an alarm regarding the replacement timing of the relay based on the maintenance data read from the nonvolatile memory. By outputting the alarm, the user can easily recognize that the relay replacement time has been reached.

In the relay device of the present invention, information for identifying a relay entity may be stored in a nonvolatile memory. The information for identifying the individual of the relay includes, for example, information regarding the type of the relay, and information such as the serial number and lot number of the relay. By using the information for identifying the individual of the relay in combination, it is possible to easily perform failure analysis and determination of failure factors when a failure occurs in the relay.

The relay device of the present invention may include a host device to which a relay mounting board is connectable, and the host device may be provided with the relay drive circuit for driving the relay and the control means described above. Since the host device does not need to be replaced, when the relay device is built-in to a certain device and used, the host device can be fixed and arranged in the device. By integrating the relay drive circuit and the control means and providing them in a higher level device, the configuration for the control means to acquire the relay operation status can be simplified, and the relay device control means executes the control of the device itself in which the relay device is built in. It can also be configured to

The relay device of this invention WHEREIN: The relay is a relay for power cutoff, for example. The power cut-off relay is a relay provided in a place where power is to be cut off reliably by a mechanical contact for safety reasons. By applying this invention to such a relay, it becomes possible to grasp|ascertain reliably the replacement time of a relay important for safety, etc., and the safety|security of the device incorporating a relay further improves.

In the relay device of the present invention, the electrolytic capacitor is mounted on the relay mounting board, and the control means may write information related to the life of the electrolytic capacitor into the nonvolatile memory. An electrolytic capacitor is a component which has a lifespan with the loss|disappearance of the electrolyte solution, and especially the electrolytic capacitor used for an electric power system is a component calculated|required to perform lifetime management and replace as needed. By mounting an electrolytic capacitor on a replaceable relay mounting board and writing information about the life of the electrolytic capacitor into a nonvolatile memory on the relay mounting board, it is also possible to accurately determine when to replace the electrolytic capacitor. As information regarding the lifetime of an electrolytic capacitor, an operation time (a voltage application time to an electrolytic capacitor), etc. are mentioned.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, when replacing|exchanging a relay, the reset operation|work of the count value at the time of replacing|exchanging is unnecessary, and when replacing|exchanging with the relay used until the middle, the relay apparatus which can determine replacement|exchange timing etc. is obtained.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a robot controller incorporating a relay device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the relay device.
Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a robot controller incorporating a relay device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The relay device based on this invention is provided in the relay which has a mechanical contact, and is used in the apparatus which replacement|exchange of the said relay is required. In the following description, it is assumed that the relay device based on the present invention is incorporated in the robot controller that controls the industrial robot.

[First embodiment]

Fig. 1 shows a robot controller 10 incorporating a relay device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The robot controller 10 receives power from the primary power supply circuit and drives and controls the motor 50 of each axis of the robot. The robot controller 10 is provided with a motor main power circuit 40 that generates electric power for driving the motor 50 from electric power supplied from the primary power circuit, and on the output side of the motor main power circuit 40 , a driver 41 for driving the motor 50 of each axis of the robot is provided. The driver 41 drives the motor 50 of the corresponding axis by servo control based on the command to the robot. The robot is required to be able to reliably cut off the power supply to the motor 50 by using a mechanical contact for safety reasons. So, in the robot controller 10, on the input side of the motor main power circuit 40, the relay 21 which has a mechanical contact and is in an open state when not driven so as to cut off the power supply from the primary power circuit are doing

The relay 21 is a component requiring replacement when the number of times of opening/closing or driving time of the contact exceeds a predetermined value. Therefore, in this embodiment, the relay 21 is installed on the relay mounting board 20 detachable from the main body of the robot controller 10, and when the replacement time of the relay 21 arrives, the relay mounting board 20 is the whole relay. (21) can be exchanged. In order to make the relay mounting board 20 detachable for replacement, the relay mounting board 20 is installed on the main body of the robot controller 10 by connectors 23 to 25 . By releasing the connection by the connectors 23 to 25 , the relay mounting board 20 can be separated from the main body of the robot controller 10 . Instead of the connectors 23 to 25, a terminal block may be used. The wiring from the primary power supply circuit is connected to the relay 21 by the connector 23 , and the wiring to the motor main power supply circuit 40 is connected to the relay 21 by the connector 24 . The relay mounting board 20 is also provided with an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) 22 as a nonvolatile memory. It is also possible to use nonvolatile memory other than EEPROM. As will be described later, the EEPROM 22 is provided to store information related to the relay 21 .

In the robot controller 10, it is separated from the replaceable relay mounting board 20, and the relay drive circuit 31 for driving the relay 21 and an MPU (microprocessor) for life management of the relay 21 are performed. A control board 30 on which 32 is mounted is provided. The relay device of the present embodiment is constituted by a relay mounting board 20 and a control board 30 , and a signal line 33 and a data bus 34 electrically connecting them. The signal line 33 and the data bus 34 are connected to the relay mounting board 20 by a connector 25 . The relay driving circuit 31 drives the solenoid of the relay 21 by the signal line 33 . The MPU 32 is a control means in the relay device, and is connected to the EEPROM 22 by the data bus 34 to read and write data to and from the EEPROM 22 . The MPU 32 may control the driver 41 etc. as a control part in a robot controller, and may drive the relay 21 by the relay drive circuit 31 in that case. Further, information regarding the driving state of the relay 21 by the relay driving circuit 31 is supplied from the relay driving circuit 31 to the MPU 32 .

Next, writing of information to the EEPROM 22 by the MPU 32 will be described. The information that the MPU 32 writes to the EEPROM 22 is information about the relay 21, in particular, maintenance data, which is information related to the life of the relay 21. The maintenance data includes, for example, the number of times of opening/closing of the contact of the relay 21 and the driving time in which the relay 21 is operated. Information such as history information related to occurrence of a problem such as an error code may be included in the maintenance data. Since the value of the number of opening/closing and driving time among the maintenance data increases each time the relay 21 is operated, the maintenance data can be updated frequently depending on the operation status of the relay even if the maintenance data has been written to the EEPROM 22 once. There is a need. The MPU 32 reads and updates the maintenance data from the EEPROM 22, and writes the maintenance data to the EEPROM 22 again. The information necessary for updating the maintenance data is held by the MPU 32 itself when the MPU 32 controls the relay drive circuit 31, and the MPU 32 does not control the relay drive circuit 31. In this case, the MPU 32 acquires from the relay drive circuit 31 . And in the present embodiment, the MPU 32 outputs an alarm indicating the replacement timing of the relay 21 according to the maintenance data read from the EEPROM 22 . 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the MPU 32 .

First, in step 101, when the motor main power supply circuit 40 is controlled to be ON, the MPU 32 reads data including maintenance data from the EEPROM 22 in step 102 . Then, in step 103, the MPU 32 judges whether or not the read driving time is within the prescribed time, and if it is within the prescribed time, the processing of step 105 is executed, and if not within the prescribed time, that is, the prescribed time is exceeded. If it is, the process of step 105 is executed after outputting an alarm in step 104. In step 105, the MPU 32 determines whether or not the read open/close number is within the prescribed number of times, and if it is within the prescribed number, the processing of step 107 is executed. If there is, an alarm is output in step 106 and then the processing in step 107 is executed. In step 107, the MPU 32 determines whether the motor main power supply circuit 40 is controlled to be OFF, and waits for processing until the control is OFF. When the motor main power supply circuit 40 is controlled to be OFF, in step 108, the MPU 32 stores maintenance data (especially the number of opening/closing and the driving time) according to the operation status of the relay 21 from when the maintenance data was last written. is updated, and the updated maintenance data is written to the EEPROM 22 . Since the relay 21 is not normally operated during the period in which the motor main power circuit 40 is off, the operation status of the relay 21 from the time step 101 is performed is the same as when the maintenance data was last written. It can be regarded as the operation state of the relay 21 from

The data of the prescribed time and prescribed number may be provided to the MPU 32 side in advance, but since it is expected that the prescribed time and prescribed number will be different for each type or product number of the relay 21, the prescribed time and When the data of the prescribed number of times is stored and the maintenance data is read in step 102, the data of the prescribed time and the prescribed number of times can also be read from the EEPROM 22 to the MPU 32 at the same time. By storing the data of the prescribed time and the prescribed number of times in the EEPROM 22 provided in association with the relay 21, the data of the prescribed time and the prescribed number of times for each type or product number of the relay 21 is transmitted to the MPU 32 side. It becomes possible to cope with the exchange of the relay 21 of another model or product number without preparation.

According to the relay device of this embodiment described above, since the relay 21 and the EEPROM 22 are mounted on the same relay mounting board 20, the relay 21 can be replaced with the relay mounting board 20 as a whole. is improved, and it becomes unnecessary to perform a reset process such as the number of times of opening/closing of the relay 21 or the driving time when replacing the relay 21, so that quick replacement is possible. Even when the relay that has reached the replacement period is replaced with the relay 21 that has been used until halfway, the relay mounting board 20 after replacement is also equipped with an EEPROM 22 that stores the maintenance data of the relay 21 after replacement. , after replacement, since the maintenance data is read at the timing of turning on the motor main power supply circuit 40, the life of the relay 21 after replacement can be continuously managed according to the actual opening/closing frequency and driving time. It is possible to know exactly when the relay 21 should be replaced. In addition, when a failure occurs in the relay 21, since the maintenance data of the relay 21 is stored in the EEPROM 22, by removing the relay mounting board 20 and taking out the maintenance data from the EEPROM 22, the upper device The failure analysis can be performed without using the control board 30, and the downtime accompanying the failure of the relay 21 can be shortened. In the above description, both the drive time and the switching frequency of the relay 21 are written to the EEPROM 22 as maintenance data. It may be used to output an alarm indicating the timing.

[Second embodiment]

As a part that is built into a device such as a robot controller and needs to be replaced in a timely manner by performing lifecycle management, in addition to a relay having a mechanical contact, for example, an electrolytic capacitor provided on the DC output side of a diode bridge in a rectifier circuit or the like can be heard In the second embodiment, in addition to the power cutoff relay, the lifespan management is also performed on the electrolytic capacitor incorporated in the rectifier circuit. Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the robot controller 10 incorporating the relay device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The robot controller 10 shown in FIG. 3 is the same as that shown in FIG. 1 , but uses an AC power supply 60 as a primary power supply circuit, and is powered from the AC power supply 60 in the relay mounting board 20 . It is different from that shown in FIG. 1 in that AC power is rectified into DC power and supplied to the motor main power circuit 40 . In the relay mounting board 20 , a relay 21 is provided to block AC power from the AC power supply 60 , and a diode bridge 26 is provided on the output side of the relay 21 to supply AC power. An electrolytic capacitor 27 is connected to the DC output of the diode bridge 26 . The DC power output from the diode bridge 26 and smoothed by the electrolytic capacitor 27 is supplied to the motor main power circuit 40 by the connector 24 .

The MPU 32 mounted on the control board 30 receives not only the maintenance data of the relay 21 , but also information about the life of the electrolytic capacitor 27 , for example, information about the operating time of the electrolytic capacitor 27 . It writes to the EEPROM 22. And when the operation time of the electrolytic capacitor 27 exceeds the predetermined time, the MPU 32 outputs an alarm. More specifically, when reading the maintenance data from the EEPROM 22 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 2 (step 102), the MPU 32 also reads information about the operating time of the electrolytic capacitor 27, When this operation time exceeds a predetermined time, an alarm is output. And when the maintenance data is written into the EEPROM 22 in step 108, the MPU 32 responds to the operation state of the electrolytic capacitor 27 from when step 108 was performed last time or when step 101 was performed this time. The operation time of the electrolytic capacitor 27 is updated, and information of the operation time after the update is written into the EEPROM 22 .

According to the second embodiment described above, the life of the electrolytic capacitor 27 can be managed based on the operating time thereof, and the electrolytic capacitor 27 can be replaced in a timely manner. The electrolytic capacitor 27 can be replaced with the relay mounting board 20 as a whole.

[Other embodiments]

In the above, the relay device based on the present invention has been described. However, in the relay device based on the present invention, information relating to the relay 21 and other than maintenance data can also be stored in the EEPROM 22 . As an example of such information, information for identifying the individual of the relay 21, for example, information regarding the type of the relay, and information such as a serial number and lot number of the relay are exemplified. When a failure occurs in the relay 21, by reading the information identifying the individual of the relay 21 together with the maintenance data from the EEPROM 22, the analysis of the failure factors of the relay 21 and the occurrence tendency of the failure can be more appropriately It becomes possible to perform statistical processing for identification of obstacles and the like, and it is also possible to easily perform statistical processing. In addition, in the EEPROM 22 , information for identifying the relay mounting board 20 or information relating to the history of the relay mounting board 20 may be stored. When information on the relay mounting board 20 is stored in the EEPROM 22, it becomes possible to manage the history of the relay mounting board 20 itself on which the EEPROM 22 is mounted. By separating and reading information from the EEPROM 22 , the analysis of the failure related to the relay mounting board 20 is facilitated.

In the above-described first embodiment, it has been explained that the specified time and the specified number of times for the driving time and the opening/closing frequency of the relay 21 may be stored in the EEPROM 22, but the EEPROM 22 includes the relay 21 The hardware parameters used to drive the relay mounting board 20 may be stored in the EEPROM 22 . The hardware parameter relates to, for example, setting of a delay time for opening/closing the relay 21 . When the hardware parameters are stored in the EEPROM 22, the relay mounting board 20 can be transferred from the control board 30 to the control board 30 side, which is a higher level device to the relay mounting board 20, without holding the hardware parameters in advance. It becomes possible to drive and control

10: robot controller
20: relay mounting board
21: relay
22: EEPROM
23 to 25: connector
26: diode bridge
27: electrolytic capacitor
30: control board
31: relay drive circuit
32: MPU
33: signal line
34: data bus
40: motor main power circuit
41: driver
50: motor
60: AC power

Claims (8)

A relay device having a relay having mechanical contacts,
a relay mounting board on which the relay is mounted and exchangeable in a state in which the relay is mounted;
a nonvolatile memory installed on the relay mounting board;
Control means provided separately from the relay mounting board and writing information about the relay into the nonvolatile memory
having a relay device. According to claim 1,
The relay device information includes maintenance data related to the life of the relay. 3. The method of claim 2,
The control means reads the maintenance data from the nonvolatile memory, updates the maintenance data according to the operation status of the relay from when the maintenance data was previously written into the nonvolatile memory, and writes the maintenance data to the nonvolatile memory which is a relay device. 4. The method of claim 3,
and the control means outputs an alarm regarding the replacement timing of the relay based on the maintenance data. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The relay device, wherein the information identifying the object of the relay is stored in the non-volatile memory. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Further comprising a host device provided so that the relay mounting board is connectable,
The host device includes a relay drive circuit for driving the relay and the control means. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The relay is a relay for power cut off, a relay device. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An electrolytic capacitor is mounted on the relay mounting board,
The said control means writes information related to the lifetime of the said electrolytic capacitor in the said nonvolatile memory.

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