EP1483185A1

EP1483185A1 - System for treating, in particular, cataphoretically immersion painting objects, particularly vehicle bodies

Info

Publication number: EP1483185A1
Application number: EP03706412A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Hans-Joachim Weinand
Original assignee: Eisenmann Anlagenbau GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Eisenmann Anlagenbau GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 2002-03-13
Filing date: 2003-02-01
Publication date: 2004-12-08
Also published as: WO2003076316A8; AU2003208365A1; WO2003076316A1; DE10210981A1; US20060037534A1; DE10210981B4

Abstract

A system for treating, in particular, cataphoretically immersion painting objects, particularly vehicle bodies comprises a number of treatment reservoirs (101, 102, 103) inside of which the objects (4) can each be subjected to the action of a treatment liquid. The objects (4) are guided one by one through the treatment reservoirs (101, 102, 103) with the aid of at least one trolley (5). Said trolley comprises a traveling mechanism (7, 8, 9 to 12) that can travel along the movement path of the objects (4). This trolley also comprises at least one pivotal arm (50, 51) that is coupled to the traveling mechanism (2, 8, 9 to 12), and has a holding device (61), which is coupled to said pivotal arm and provided for holding at least one object (4). Independent drives (32, 35, 56, 57, 80, 81) ensure that the translatory motion of the trolley (5), the pivoting of the at least one pivotal arm (50, 51), and the pivoting of the holding device (61) can be executed independent of one another. This trolley (5) enables the objects (4), which are to be treated, to be held for a long duration at an angle to the horizontal while being located in the outlet area of the treatment reservoirs (101, 102, 103) above the zone in which they are subjected to the action of the treatment liquid. This permits the treatment liquid to flow and drip off back into the treatment reservoirs (101, 102, 103).

Description

Plant for the treatment, in particular for cataphoretic dip painting, of objects, in particular vehicle bodies

The invention relates to a system for treating, in particular for cataphoretic dip painting, objects, in particular vehicle bodies

a) a plurality of treatment containers in which the objects can each be treated with a treatment liquid;

b) a conveyor with which the objects are guided through the system and are immersed one after the other in the treatment containers.

In painting systems for vehicle bodies, but also for other objects, there are a large number of treatment containers in which the objects are treated with a treatment liquid. "Exposure" is understood here to mean both gushing, spraying and also immersing the objects with or in the treatment liquid. "Swell" is understood to mean a process in which relatively large amounts of treatment liquid are applied to the objects per unit of time. Such gushing is used, for example, for the rough cleaning of vehicle bodies in the so-called pre-treatment zone. Spraying is understood to mean the generation of a very fine spray which penetrates into all angles, cracks and other inaccessible places on the objects to be treated. Such spraying processes take place, for example for cleaning as well as for phosphating, passivation or activation and their subsequent treatment of surfaces instead. When immersed, the objects, as the name implies, are placed under the liquid level of a bath of the treatment liquid. Immersion processes can also be found, for example, during cleaning and the other processes taking place in the pre-treatment zone, but also in the painting process itself.

In all cases, it is important to avoid carrying the treatment liquid from one treatment container to the next treatment container as far as possible. This is primarily intended to treat the treatment liquid in the next treatment tank in front of one

Changes in their composition are preserved; in addition, the consumption of the treatment liquid due to carryover should also be minimized.

A system of the type mentioned is described in DE 196 41 048 C2. Here, the conveyor device comprises two endless chains, on which so-called “bogies” are fastened so as to be rotatable about a horizontal axis, which in turn each carry a vehicle body. The vehicle bodies are turned by a first turn of the

Bogies are immersed by 180 ° in a treatment area, which can be a bath, and lifted out of the treatment area by a second rotary movement by 180 °. The rotary movements are derived from the translation movement by means of a link device. Since it is not possible to stop the individual vehicle bodies at a specific point and the objects in the known system are to be lifted out of the bath as shortly as possible before the end of the treatment container, the objects guide after leaving the treatment tank with a relatively large amount of treatment liquid. So-called "drip zones" must therefore be set up between two successive containers, while the treatment liquid can flow off from the objects, so that the carry-over of liquid into the next bath is kept small. However, these draining zones extend the overall system, which is always associated with considerable costs.

The object of the present invention is to design a system of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that it manages with a shorter overall length.

This object is achieved in that

c) the conveyor device comprises at least one transport carriage, which in turn has:

ca) a chassis that can be moved along the path of movement of the objects;

cb) at least one swivel arm articulated on the chassis;

cc) a holder articulated on the swivel arm for at least one object;

cd) independently operable drives for the translational movement, the pivoting of the at least one pivot arm and the holder;

d) at least two treatment containers in succession without the interposition of a drip zone are arranged.

In the present invention, a transport trolley is used, as is known per se from DE-U-201 05 676. Only the immersion and immersion of an object in a single treatment bath is described in detail there. With the present invention it is recognized that the known transport carriage allows special kinematics for the objects they transport in the outlet area of the individual treatment containers. The objects can namely be brought into a position in the outlet area of the treatment containers by a correspondingly coordinated movement in the three degrees of freedom provided by the transport trolley, in which they are located above the zone in which treatment liquid is applied to them an angular position to the horizontal, which allows the treatment liquid to drain and drip. The translational movement of the transport carriage can be stopped briefly in this position of the objects until the treatment liquid has completely flowed back into the associated treatment container. Only then is the translational movement of the transport carriage continued and the object now almost completely freed from the treatment liquid of the previous treatment container is introduced into the next treatment container. Draining zones between the treatment containers are unnecessary in this way, as a result of which the overall length of the system is correspondingly shorter.

The kinematics of the objects used in the draining process can be adapted to the respective object, for example by setting different, in particular opposite, angles to the horizon. tal.

An embodiment of the invention is explained below with reference to the drawing; show it

Figure 1 is a side view of a trolley used in the painting system with a vehicle body attached to it in the normal transport position;

Figure 2 is a side view of the trolley similar to Figure 1, but in which the vehicle body is pivoted from the transport position;

Figure 3: the top view of the trolley of Figure 2;

FIG. 4: a perspective view of the transport vehicle including the vehicle body from FIG. 1;

Figure 5 shows a section through Figure 3 along the line VIII-VIII there;

FIGS. 6 and 7: enlarged detail views of the transport carriage in the area of the wheels standing on the running surfaces;

FIG. 8: a section from the pretreatment zone comprising a three treatment container

Paint shop.

The construction of transport trolleys 5, as shown in the other figures, is first described in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 Painting system are used. Such trolleys 5 are known in principle from DE-U-201 05 676, to which reference is also made. Knowing ^'the movement kinematics of the transport carriage 5 will tap into but only the understanding of the entire system, so the explanation of the feed carriages 5 in the present description, where necessary, repeated.

As particularly shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each transport carriage 5 has two longitudinal cross members 7, 8, on the underside of which two double wheels 9, 10 and 11, 12 are rotatably mounted about a horizontal axis. In addition, the wheels 9 to 12 can each be rotated about a vertical axis with the aid of a turntable, not shown in detail, so that the alignment of the double wheels 9 to 12 with respect to the respective longitudinal beams 7, 8 can be changed.

The double wheels 9, 10 roll on a first tread 13 and the double wheels 11, 12 on a parallel parallel tread 14. The treads 13, 14 are in turn each mounted on an I-beam 15, 16, which is supported by a steel structure, not shown.

In the middle of the second tread 14 on the right in FIGS. 3 and 4 there is a guide rib 17 which is overlapped by guide members 18 (see FIG. 7) having a complementary recess. In each case one guide member 18 is connected to the turntable of an assigned double wheel 11 or 12 in such a way that it rotates this double wheel 11 or 12 about the vertical axis in accordance with the course of the guide rib 17. In this way, the double wheels 11, 12 follow the tread 14. Those assigned to the first tread 13 on the left in FIGS. 3 and 4 Double wheels 9, 10, however, are designed as pure trailing wheels; that is, there are no separate guide means for influencing the angular position of the wheels about their vertical axis of rotation. In this way, the accuracy requirements for the guide means with which the trolleys 5 are held on the running surfaces 13, 14 can be kept low.

Vehicle bodies 4 are carried on the transport carriage 5 with the aid of an immersion device, which comprises a swivel device on each side of the vehicle bodies 4. Each of these swivel devices has a swivel arm 50, 51, which can swivel in a manner to be described in a vertical plane which runs parallel to the conveying direction. For this purpose, each swivel arm 50, 51 is connected to the output shaft of a gear 54, 55 via a stub shaft 52, 53 which runs perpendicular to the conveying direction. The gear 54, 55 is fastened to the respective longitudinal cross member 7, 8 of the transport carriage 5 approximately in the central area thereof. It is driven by a motor 56 or 57, which is flanged to the side of the gear 54, 55.

The rear ends of the swivel arms 50, 51 in the direction of movement are connected in an articulated manner to a tab 58, 59 which, in the normal transport position shown in FIG. 1, extends vertically downward from the corresponding swivel arm 50, 51. The lower ends of the tabs 58, 59 are connected to one another via a crossbar 60 running perpendicular to the direction of movement, which in turn is rigidly connected to the central region of a support platform 61 for the vehicle body 4. The direction of extension of the two tabs 58, 59 extends perpendicular to the plane of the support platform 61. The angular position which the tabs 58, 59 assume in relation to the swivel arms 50, 51 is determined in each case by an adjusting device which bears the reference numbers 62 and 63 as a whole. Each of these adjusting devices 62, 63 comprises a linkage with two parallel push rods 64, 65 and 66, 67, which are connected to each other at their opposite ends via a connecting bracket 68, 69 and 70, 71, respectively. The connecting straps 69 and 71, which are at the rear in the direction of movement, are rigidly fixed to the crossbar 60 at their lower end.

The connecting lugs 70, 71 located at the front in the direction of movement, on the other hand, are each rigidly connected to a stub shaft, which cannot be seen in the drawing, since it extends coaxially through the associated stub shaft 52, 53 designed as a hollow shaft. These further stub shafts also run through the gears 54, 55 and are coupled to the output shafts of further gears 78, 79, which are attached laterally to the gears 54, 55. Drive motors 80, 81 are also flanged to the gears 78, 79.

The front ends of the two swivel arms 50, 51 together bear a counterweight 88, so that the torques acting on the stub shafts 52, 53 are approximately balanced when the vehicle body 4 is in place.

The double wheels 19 to 12 of the transport carriage 5 are not themselves driven. Rather, the forward drive of the transport carriage 5 takes place via a separate drive, which is explained in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7. Parallel to the two running surfaces 13, 14 extend two vertically oriented, stationary drive flanges 26, 27. These each cooperate with a press roller drive 28 or 29 which fastens to the side surface of the adjacent longitudinal cross member 7, 8 by means of a tab 30 or 31 is. The press roller drives 28, 29 each comprise an electric drive motor 32, 33 and a drive gear 34, 35. The latter drives the parallel, vertical axes of two press rollers 36, 37 and 38, 39, respectively, from both sides against the respectively assigned drive flange 26 or 27 are pressed. If the drive motors 32, 33 are energized, the pressure rollers 36, 37 and 38, 39 run on the respective side surfaces of the drive flanges 26, 27 and thereby move the transport carriage 5 on the running surfaces 13, 14 forward.

Each transport carriage 5 comprises its own carriage control, under the regime of which it carries out both its translational movement along the running surfaces 13, 14 and the pivoting movements of the swivel arms 50, 51 and the support platform 61.

In summary, the possible movements of a vehicle body 4 carried on a transport carriage 5 can be described as follows:

The total movement results from a superimposition of the linear translation movement of the transport carriage 5, a first swivel movement, which the swivel arms

50, 51 with respect to the longitudinal beams 7, 8 and which is associated with a raising or lowering of the vehicle body 4, and a second pivoting movement which the vehicle body 4 located on the support platform 61 executes with respect to the pivoting arms 50, 51 All these types of movement can be carried out completely independently of one another, which leads to virtually any movement kinematics of the vehicle body 4. In the exemplary embodiment of a transport carriage 5 described above, the pivoting movement is transmitted to the support platform 61 by the motors 80, 81 by means of rod-like adjusting devices 62, 63. Of course, however, the adjusting devices can also be designed differently, for example containing endless metal strips as torque-transmitting elements.

Reference is now made to FIG. 8, in which the section of a painting installation that is of interest in the present context is shown. In this figure, a vehicle body 4 is shown at different locations and at different heights and angles to the horizontal. This vehicle body 4 is to be thought of as being carried by a transport vehicle 5. The latter is not shown even to relieve the figures. From the above description of the transport vehicle 5, however, it follows easily that and how the vehicle body

4 can take the respective positions.

FIG. 8 shows three treatment containers 101, 102, 103, which are in the “net movement direction” of the transport trolleys

5 and thus the vehicle bodies 4 are arranged one behind the other. “Net direction of movement” is understood to mean a movement that runs from left to right in FIG. 8, but does not exclude that reversals of movement also take place temporarily. Such a temporary reversal of movement can serve, for example, to raise a vehicle body 4 practically vertically. In this case, the movement component of the vehicle body 4 connected with the swiveling movement of the swivel arms 50, 51 becomes horizontal direction canceled by a corresponding translation movement of the transport carriage 5. Such a temporary reversal of the movement of the transport carriage 5 can also be useful for achieving other kinematics of the vehicle body 4.

The treatment containers 101, 102 and 103 are located in a pretreatment zone in which the vehicle bodies 4 are prepared for cataphoretic dip painting. A plurality of surge nozzles 104 are arranged on the walls and on the bottom of the first treatment container 101, via which the vehicle body 4 introduced into the treatment container 101 with the aid of the transport carriage 5 can be subjected to a surge of a treatment liquid, for example an alkali , The vehicle body 4 is pivoted back and forth within the treatment container 101 by appropriate movement of the holder 61 on which the vehicle body 4 is located, so that on the one hand all surfaces of the vehicle body 4 can be reached by the treatment liquid, even at poorly accessible angles and, if necessary Cavities, and that on the other hand the treatment liquid and any contaminants carried by it are flushed away from the vehicle body 4 and flushed out of their cavities.

After this surge process has been completed, the vehicle body 4 is lifted out of the treatment container 101 with the aid of the transport carriage 5, the vehicle body 4, as shown on the right above the treatment container 101, at a very steep angle to the horizontal, not far from 90 °, brought. The transport carriage 5 remains in the corresponding position in which the vehicle body 4 lies over the outlet area of the treatment container. ters 101 is until the treatment liquid applied via the surge nozzles 104 has largely flowed back into the treatment container 101 and has dripped from the vehicle body 4.

The vehicle body 4 can now be moved further by the transport carriage 5 and introduced directly into the next treatment container 102 without the risk of liquid carryover. No drip zone therefore needs to be inserted between the successive treatment containers 101, 102. The treatment containers 101, 102 can practically abut one another with their walls.

Immersion degreasing of the vehicle bodies 4 takes place in the treatment container 102. For this purpose, the treatment container 102 is filled up to a certain level 105 with a degreasing liquid, for example also an alkali. The transport carriage 5 dips the vehicle body 4 into the treatment tank 102 and the degreasing liquid therein and swings during the passage of the vehicle body 4 through a corresponding movement, as described, for example, in the above-mentioned DE-U-201 05 676 Treatment container 102 this back and forth as needed to improve the access and drainage of the degreasing liquid to or from all surfaces of the vehicle body 4, including their cavities.

In the outlet area of the second treatment container 102, the vehicle body 4 is lifted again in the same way as described above for the treatment container 101: the vehicle body 4 is placed steeply against the horizontal in the manner shown after it has emerged from the degreasing liquid. The transport carriage 5 does not move further until the degreasing liquid has largely flowed back into the treatment container 102 and has dripped from the vehicle body 4.

Now the transport carriage 5 moves the vehicle body 4 again and lowers it with a corresponding superimposition of its translation movement and the pivoting movements of pivoting arms 50, 51 and support platform 61 into the third treatment container 103.

On the walls of the treatment container 103 there are a large number of spray nozzles 106, via which the vehicle body 4 is sprayed with degreasing liquid. The spray nozzles 106 generate a fine spray jet which penetrates into all angles of the vehicle body 4 and all cavities. This penetration is again improved by corresponding pivoting movements of the vehicle body 4, which the transport carriage 5 executes.

At the end of the treatment container 103, the vehicle body 4 is lifted out in the same manner as has already been described for the treatment containers 101 and 102. In the position of the vehicle body 4 which is raised steeply against the horizontal, above the outlet region of the treatment container 103, the degreasing liquid flows back into the treatment container 103 and drips from the vehicle body 4. This can now be returned to its normal horizontal position on the transport carriage 5, for example, and transported to a further processing station, not shown.

Claims

Patent claim

05

System for treating, in particular for cataphoretic dip painting, objects, in particular vehicle bodies

10 a) several treatment containers in which the objects can each be treated with a treatment liquid;

b) a conveyor device with which the objects 15 are guided through the system and immersed one after the other in the treatment containers,

characterized in that

20 c) the conveyor device comprises at least one transport trolley (5), which in turn has:

ca) a chassis (7, 8, 9 to 12) that can be moved along the path of movement of the objects;

25 cb) at least one swivel arm (50, 51) articulated on the chassis (7, 8, 9 to 12);

cc) one articulated on the swivel arm (50, 51).

30 holder (61) for at least one object

(4);

cd) drives that can be operated independently of one another

(32, 35, 56, 57, 80, 81) for the translational 35 movement, the pivoting of at least one

-002 swivel arm (50, 51) and the holder (61);

at least two treatment containers (101, 102, 103) are arranged directly one behind the other without the interposition of a dripping zone.