CA2251858A1 - Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles - Google Patents

Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles Download PDF

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Publication number
CA2251858A1
CA2251858A1 CA 2251858 CA2251858A CA2251858A1 CA 2251858 A1 CA2251858 A1 CA 2251858A1 CA 2251858 CA2251858 CA 2251858 CA 2251858 A CA2251858 A CA 2251858A CA 2251858 A1 CA2251858 A1 CA 2251858A1
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
trimming
path
tool
workpiece
grille
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
CA 2251858
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Helmut S. Hild
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to CA 2251858 priority Critical patent/CA2251858A1/en
Publication of CA2251858A1 publication Critical patent/CA2251858A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B23MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • B23QDETAILS, COMPONENTS, OR ACCESSORIES FOR MACHINE TOOLS, e.g. ARRANGEMENTS FOR COPYING OR CONTROLLING; MACHINE TOOLS IN GENERAL CHARACTERISED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTICULAR DETAILS OR COMPONENTS; COMBINATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS OF METAL-WORKING MACHINES, NOT DIRECTED TO A PARTICULAR RESULT
    • B23Q1/00Members which are comprised in the general build-up of a form of machine, particularly relatively large fixed members
    • B23Q1/25Movable or adjustable work or tool supports
    • B23Q1/44Movable or adjustable work or tool supports using particular mechanisms
    • B23Q1/50Movable or adjustable work or tool supports using particular mechanisms with rotating pairs only, the rotating pairs being the first two elements of the mechanism
    • B23Q1/52Movable or adjustable work or tool supports using particular mechanisms with rotating pairs only, the rotating pairs being the first two elements of the mechanism a single rotating pair
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B23MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • B23CMILLING
    • B23C3/00Milling particular work; Special milling operations; Machines therefor
    • B23C3/12Trimming or finishing edges, e.g. deburring welded corners
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B24GRINDING; POLISHING
    • B24BMACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
    • B24B17/00Special adaptations of machines or devices for grinding controlled by patterns, drawings, magnetic tapes or the like; Accessories therefor
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B24GRINDING; POLISHING
    • B24BMACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
    • B24B9/00Machines or devices designed for grinding edges or bevels on work or for removing burrs; Accessories therefor
    • B24B9/02Machines or devices designed for grinding edges or bevels on work or for removing burrs; Accessories therefor characterised by a special design with respect to properties of materials specific to articles to be ground
    • B24B9/20Machines or devices designed for grinding edges or bevels on work or for removing burrs; Accessories therefor characterised by a special design with respect to properties of materials specific to articles to be ground of plastics
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B23MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • B23CMILLING
    • B23C2226/00Materials of tools or workpieces not comprising a metal
    • B23C2226/61Plastics not otherwise provided for, e.g. nylon
    • GPHYSICS
    • G05CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05BCONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B2219/00Program-control systems
    • G05B2219/30Nc systems
    • G05B2219/45Nc applications
    • G05B2219/45151Deburring
    • GPHYSICS
    • G05CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05BCONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B2219/00Program-control systems
    • G05B2219/30Nc systems
    • G05B2219/50Machine tool, machine tool null till machine tool work handling
    • G05B2219/50156Tiltable rotary table

Description

This invention relates to an automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles.
Moulded plastic articles, such as for example, automobile bumpers, automobile front grilles and other articles are removed from the moulds with an appreciable amount of "flash", i.e. excess plastic material from crevices or irregularities in the mould or from cracks between two mould parts. Such flash is inevitable in injection moulding. It must be trimmed away from the article cleanly to provide a finished surface.
Conventionally trimming and finishing is carried out manually and may require the use of several tools for example, an Exacto knife, a swirl knife, an orbital sander, a drill. Some parts may require hand sanding. Different techniques may be required consecutively on some parts of the article or on different parts of the article.
Such manual trimming and finishing is very labour and time intensive and completely uniform parts are not achievable. Human error may result in undue wastage especially as it may sometimes be necessary to scrap an entire article when a mistake is made.
It is a problem that no automated method for trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles exists, which method is sufficiently accurate to provide finished uniform articles.
- 2 -It is known to operate tools using robots programmed to follow a preset path but it has not been thought possible to use a robot to trim and finish a complex plastic moulding, such as, for example an automobile front grille due to the complexity of the various paths to be followed and, due to the fact that the article would have to be presented to tool at various different angles to allow the tool to access all necessary surfaced, the angle of approach of the tool.
According to the invention there is provided an automated method of trimming a workpiece moulded from plastics material and having a complex three dimensional shape comprised of various differently angled planes, edges and/or surfaces, comprising: supporting the workpiece firmly on a support therefor to present one aspect of the article to a trimming tool mounted on a robotic arm;
operating the robotic arm according to a first trimming program to move the tool along at least a first trimming path for the tool to trim the workpiece along said first trimming path; tilting said support through a preset angle to present a second aspect of the workpiece to said tool;
and operating the robotic arm according to a second trimming program to move the tool along at least a second path for the tool to trim the article along said second path.
Preferably the preset angle is computer calculated in dependence on the shape of the workpiece and the first trimming program.
- 3 -The invention includes apparatus for automated trimming of a workpiece moulded from plastics material and having a complex three dimensional shape comprised of differently angled planes, edges and/or surfaces comprising: a support for the workpiece and a robotically operable trimming tool;
the trimming tool being robotically operable to move along trimming paths according to trimming programs to trim the workpiece along each of the paths; and the support being tiltable through preset angles to present different aspects l0 of the workpiece to the tool for operation of the tool along a respective trimming path.
The trimming paths need not be continuous. The robotic arm may lift the tool away from the workpiece and return the tool to the workpiece to trim discontinuous lengths along the workpiece. Such discontinuous lengths may be, for example, parts of a square grid grille.
The angle of the tool to the workpiece may be altered as desired within the capability of the robotic arm by means of the program for the path.
The tool utilized with the robotic arm may be any conventional tool but a diamond router may give a fine, accurate finish.
The support may be a positive image of the workpiece which may be fixed thereto by any convenient means which does not foul the passage of the trimming tool.
- 4 -Tilting of the support may be through any conventional accurate mechanism in three dimensions. Computer control of the mechanism must be precise and should be preferably be implemented by a tilting program itself dependent upon the trimming program to be operated. Thus, when the first trimming path is completed, the tilting mechanism may be automatically operated by means of the tilting program to set the support, and hence the workpiece, in precise position for the start of the second trimming path.
The first trimming program, the second trimming program and the tilting program may be component parts of an integrated program for interdependent trimming and tilting program. However, practically, it is likely that the trimming program for the robotic arm may be separate from the tilting program which may utilize a personal computer.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which:
Figure 1 illustrates an automobile front grille on a controllably tiltable support for trimming by a tool mounted on a robotic arm;
Figure 2 shows one design of controllably tiltable stand; and Figure 3A and 3B show different moulded bumpers which may be trimmed according to the invention.
Figure 1 shows an automobile front grille 10 held
- 5 -firmly on a stand 12 for trimming by a diamond router 14 operated through a Motoman KlOS Routing Robot 16.
The robot 16 is programmed so that the diamond router 14 follows a first path to trim flash from all available surfaces of a grille 10 in a first position of stand 12.
The amount of available surface is dependent both upon the complexity of the grille 10 and the manoeuvrability of robot 16. The Motoman K10S is a robot of the vertical jointed arm type with 6 degrees of freedom and wide range of wrist action for both pitch/yaw movement and for twist movement.
Thus good access to the grille 10 is possible.
The stand 12 (illustrated in more detail in Figure 2) comprises a pair of tiltable supports 20 to which the grille 10 is firmly attached. The supports 20 comprise elongate members pivoted about a tilt axis at lower ends 22 to extend generally upwardly. They should be spaced apart by a suitable distance to hold an automobile grille or bumper.
For many automobiles such distance may be about 52".
Distal ends 24 of the supports 20 are provided with bearing surfaces 26 attached to positive image buck 11.
Positive image buck 11 is shown in Figure 2 having adjustable side supports 13 on extensible and retractable supports 15. However, it is to be noted that adjustment may be achieved by various means. Bearing surfaces 26 may be steel plates welded onto supports 20 and bolted to buck 11.
They should be located such that they do not obstruct
- 6 -interior trim surfaces of grille 10. For this reason bearing surfaces 26 should be as small as reasonable while holding grille 10 firmly. Actual attachment of grill 10 to the bearing surfaces 26 may be by any convenient means for example by screws.
The lower ends 22 of supports 20 are fixed on axles 28 in pillow blocks 30 mounted on respective pillars 32. The axles 28 are driven from chain drive 34 on driven axle 36.
A support bar 38 may also be present connecting the pillars 32 for additional stability.
The driven axle 38 is located at or near floor level well away from the vicinity of grille 10.
When robot 16 has finished its primary task, i.e. the trimming and finishing of all available surface of the workpiece when in its first position, the driven axle 36 is activated to rotate by motor 37 and thereby drive the chain drive 34 to rotate axle 32 to alter the angle of supports 20. Axle 38 is rotated just sufficiently to twist the supports 20 into a prechosen position for the robot 16 to access further surface of grille 10 so that it may perform a second programmed path for the diamond router 14 to trim further flash from the grille 10.
If all the surface to be trimmed of grille 10 has not been trimmed in two positions of grille 10, the drive shaft 38 may be rotated further to move the supports 20 and hence
7 _ grille 10 into yet another position. Robot 16 may be programmed to carry out yet another trimming path on grille 10.
Conveniently, the robot is preprogrammed for as many trimming paths as are necessary for any particular work piece to be trimmed at respective preset presentation angles of the work piece to the robot. The drive shaft 38 may be automatically controlled through a computer to move the workpiece to its new presentation angle as soon as the robot has finished its trimming path in the previous position of the work piece. The presentation angle of the work piece to the robot are precalculated independence on the complexity of the workpiece and the three dimensional orientation of the various planes and surfaces of the work piece which are to be trimmed.
Figures 3A and 3B show different aspects of automobile bumpers for trimming and finishing according to the invention.
Such bumpers may require to be set into a variety of different positions to allow the robot to access all planes and surfaces to be trimmed. Possible different trimming paths are indicated on the drawings of Figures 3A and 3B in broken lines.
The relatively simple bumper of Figure 3A requires trimming along 8 trim paths and around all attachment holes.

g _ The trim paths are marked a - h. Paths a, c, and d run along the front edge of the bumper while path b runs along the rear edge of an upper rearwardly extending flange.
Paths a and g run vertically (or generally vertically) along rear inner vertical edges of the bumper. Path f runs along a front lower edge of the bumper and path h runs along the inside edge of a lower inwardly directed flange. By tilting of the bumper supported on the tiltable support all of these paths may be accessed by the robotic tool which for these paths may suitably be a diamond router. It is also possible to use an orbital sander on the robotic arm to sand outer vertical rear edges of the bumper.
The bumper of Figure 3B is more complex but again all of trim paths A - J may be accessed by a tool on a robotic arm. Path A runs along the front top edge of the bumper.
Path B runs along a rear edge of a rearwardly extending top flange of the bumper. Path C runs along GOP flanges and side retainer. Path D runs along the bottom valance inside the rearwardly extending flange. Path E runs along the outer edge of the bottom valance. Path F and G run generally vertically along inside rear vertical edges of the wheel flanges. Path H runs around the grille opening. Path I runs around the various attachment holes. Path J runs around the signal light. All of these paths may be accessed a tool on a robotic arm when the support is tilted in various positions.
Programming of the robot 16 to follow a particular trimming path for a particular work piece is conventional for whatever robot is used and such programming will not be addressed here. Once the robot has been programmed and, as a result it has been established what particular angles of presentation are required for the workpiece, these angles may be entered into a computer so that movement of the workpiece from one position to the next angle of presentation is automated.

Claims

CA 2251858 1998-10-26 1998-10-26 Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles Abandoned CA2251858A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2251858 CA2251858A1 (en) 1998-10-26 1998-10-26 Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2251858 CA2251858A1 (en) 1998-10-26 1998-10-26 Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2251858A1 true CA2251858A1 (en) 2000-04-26

Family

ID=29425536

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA 2251858 Abandoned CA2251858A1 (en) 1998-10-26 1998-10-26 Automated method of trimming and finishing moulded plastic articles

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA2251858A1 (en)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR3015330A1 (en) * 2013-12-24 2015-06-26 Plastic Omnium Cie ROTARY TOOL FOR REMOVING MATERIAL FROM A PIECE OF PLASTIC MATERIAL
CN114986300A (en) * 2022-07-01 2022-09-02 江苏康程新材料科技有限公司 Outer wall decorative board H type anchor assembly shaping burring device

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR3015330A1 (en) * 2013-12-24 2015-06-26 Plastic Omnium Cie ROTARY TOOL FOR REMOVING MATERIAL FROM A PIECE OF PLASTIC MATERIAL
WO2015097392A1 (en) * 2013-12-24 2015-07-02 Compagnie Plastic Omnium Rotary tool for removing material from a plastic part
CN114986300A (en) * 2022-07-01 2022-09-02 江苏康程新材料科技有限公司 Outer wall decorative board H type anchor assembly shaping burring device
CN114986300B (en) * 2022-07-01 2023-09-08 江苏康程新材料科技有限公司 Outer wall decorative board H type anchor assembly shaping burring device

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