FR3123335A1 - Installation of replaceable equipment management of a production line - Google Patents

Abstract

TITLE: Installation for managing replaceable equipment of a production line Installation comprising boxes (4) for equipment (E) and each identified by a code, a store carrying cells (11), radial, on the periphery; a drive device (12), - an exchange zone (13) formed by a column of cells (11); an elevator (2) with a horizontal rail (23) and a transfer carriage (3) on the rail (23) by describing a trajectory between a position of access to the exchange zone (13) and a zone of exchange (52) of an exchanger conveyor (5) connected to the production line (LP) Figure 1

Description

Installation of replaceable equipment management of a production line

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an installation for managing replaceable equipment of a production line comprising an equipment store, an installation connecting the store and the production line to provide it with the equipment necessary for production and to take back the equipment replaced and store them in the store.

STATE OF THE ART

There are different types of tool magazines for the automatic or semi-automatic feeding of machines, especially machine tools depending on the operations to be carried out.

Such magazines include cutters or drills of different sizes or shapes to perform automatic machining.

There are also tool storage and retrieval facilities in the form of sets of satellite carousels carried by a rotating structure. The satellites are columns of housings with the tools or equipment waiting. Columns of slots with tools are led into a window to access this or that slot of the selected tool. However, such installations are relatively complex.

There are also storage towers with compartments distributed on rings of a cylindrical drum to be accessible from the outside.

These installations have various disadvantages of complexity, slowness of operation to obtain or store the desired tool or to adapt to very different forms of tools.

PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION

The aim of the present invention is to develop an installation for managing replaceable equipment of a production line offering a very large capacity for storage and more generally for managing equipment, making it possible to supply or store equipment very quickly by allowing to automate operations between the equipment exchange station at the entrance to a management installation by making it possible to provide or store equipment in a fully automatic manner to respond simply and quickly to requests for equipment which, for nature, are more or less random.

DESCRIPTION AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

To this end, the subject of the invention is an installation for managing replaceable equipment of the type defined above, characterized in that it comprises a set of boxes intended to contain the equipment and each identified by a code, each box having a radial length and a width; an equipment magazine in the form of a vertical cylindrical tower carrying cells, radial, forming referenced storage locations and distributed in superimposed crowns, accessible from the outside on the periphery of the cylindrical tower; a rotary drive device, controlled; an exchange zone extending over the entire height of the tower and formed by a column of cells an elevator associated with the exchange zone comprising a vertical rail, an elevator carriage, movable on the vertical rail; a radially oriented horizontal rail with parallax to the center of rotation of the tower; a transfer carriage, movable on the horizontal rail of the elevator carriage while describing a radial trajectory passing through the axis of the tower between a position of access to the exchange zone of the tower and an exchange zone of an exchanger conveyor connected to the production line, the exchanger-conveyor forming an exchange zone for exchanging a box of equipment with the transfer carriage; a control unit receiving equipment requests from the production line and generating control signals to control the positioning of the selected cell of the store in the exchange zone; command the transfer trolley to come in front of the selected cell in the exchange column to exchange the box and command the transfer trolley to exchange the selected box with the exchanger conveyor of the production line.

The installation for managing replaceable equipment of a production line according to the invention makes it possible to effectively exchange the equipment of the production line in an automatic manner, according to the requests sent by the production line.

The invention allows the automatic operation of the recovery or storage of equipment transferred in boxes between the station of use, that is to say a station on the production line and the storage location in the store in the shape of a tower.

This operation is particularly fast because the movement of the tower to position the cell, of the selected box in the exchange zone and the positioning in height of the fork to be ready to take the box in the exchange zone allow considerably reduce the time of the equipment recovery or exchange cycle. The scanning of the RFID tags of the boxes allows a control avoiding any storage error which would require a complete scanning of all the cells to correct storage errors.

The installation also makes it possible to optimize operation randomly because no cell of the tower is assigned in a fixed manner to a specific piece of equipment.

The identification of the contents of a box makes it possible to follow the storage of the box, that is to say the place where such or such specific equipment can be found, without it being necessary to put the box back, c ie a certain piece of equipment, in a certain cell of the store. This procedure reduces to a minimum the time required to put equipment back in place in the store or, conversely, to retrieve equipment from the store to the production line.

The cylindrical, rotary shape of the magazine also makes it possible to reduce the rotational movement of the tower to a half-periphery of the tower since whatever the equipment, it is certainly located on half of the peripheral surface of the tower. round. As the movement of the tower is limited to one of the components of the movement, that is to say the movement of rotation to present the selected box in the exchange zone in the form of a column or a vertical window, during this rotation time, the truck is leveled in height in the exchange zone corresponding to the height of the cell to which it must access.

In other words, the durations of movements of the tower and the transfer trolley, by the elevator, are not times which are added, because the duration of the cycle is the time of the longest operation, pivoting the tower or raising the transfer trolley.

According to a particularly advantageous characteristic, the radial cell is a lying U-shaped support open towards the periphery, in a radial orientation with respect to the tower comprising:

- a back bordered by two branches each formed by an angle iron having a vertical side and a horizontal side separated from the other horizontal side by a free interval, the horizontal side having the length equal to the radial length of the box and the sides vertical having a length less than the radial length and being separated by the width of a box; the transfer cart has a pivoting arm with a fork having a central blade of length equal to the radial length of a box and with sides spaced apart by the width of a box and of length less than the radial length of the box , so that in an exchange zone, the fork can pass with its central blade under the bottom of a box between the horizontal sides on which the box rests or the lateral paths of the exchange zone, the sides of the fork partially bordering the longitudinal sides of the box.

This embodiment of the cell simplifies the construction not only of the cell, but also of the transfer cart and the cart tool that supports the box. This fork-shaped tool picks up or drops the box with its central blade.

The simplicity of the structure of the cell and the fork makes it easy to adapt the installation to different equipment requiring boxes of different sizes.

The simplicity of the structure of the radial cell also makes it easy and quick to modify the place reserved for a radial cell both in peripheral length and in height without requiring any other modifications. If necessary, the fork of the transfer trolley is adaptable or is automatically compatible with such modification of the boxes.

According to another advantageous feature, the horizontal rail of the elevator carriage is parallel to the radial direction of the pivot of the fork arm. This arrangement saves a lot of time because the rectilinear route of the transfer trolley is automatically directed towards the exchange area of the tower.

According to another characteristic advantage the sum of the length of a side of the fork and a vertical side of the branch of a cell is less than the radial length of the radial side of a box.

This shape and these dimensions of the arms of the fork and of the sides of the cell make it possible to make the sides or the lateral branches compatible with each other while ensuring a good hold of the box both on the sides of the cell and on the central blade of the fork.

According to another advantageous characteristic, the pivoting arm of the carriage is telescopic with respect to its pivot. This makes it possible to adapt the exchange zone with the production line to different characteristics of production lines and the distances or orientations of their exchange zones with respect to the installation, i.e. the lathe and the transfer trolley.

According to another characteristic, the sides of the fork and/or the vertical sides of the branches have flared ends, which facilitates the engagement of the fork on the box or the transfer of the box into a cell without the inevitable transverse shifts interfere with or block the transfer.

Finally, and as already indicated, the boxes being identified by an RFID code, the fork is advantageously equipped with an RFID sensor to check from the start of the pick-up, the identity of the contents of the box so that this identity can then be automatically associated with a location in a cell of the tower and allow this box to be unequivocally retrieved in response to a future request.

The present invention will be described below in more detail with the aid of embodiments of a replaceable equipment management installation shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

schematic plan view of an equipment management installation according to the invention,

perspective view of a cell forming a housing for a box in the store,

perspective view of a transfer cart,

perspective view of a transfer trolley accessing a cell without representation of the box,

perspective view of the equipment management facility showing the magazine and elevator as well as the transfer cart,

facility lift.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

According to , the subject of the invention is an installation for managing replaceable equipment of an LP production line (LP1, LP2) supplied with an equipment box 4 containing the equipment used on the production line or returning boxes with equipment of the production line.

This exchange of equipment in one direction and in the other takes place between the production line LP and the equipment store 1. The equipment E is production tools in the general sense, used in the packaging manufacturing stations and others from the production line. As it is figured in the general sense, the installation can exchange equipment with one or more production lines LP1, LP2 or parts of production lines.

According to the invention, the equipment E is placed in boxes 4 circulating between an exchange zone 13 of the equipment store 1 and an exchange zone 52 with the production line LP.

The box 4, preferably of rectangular shape (possibly square) has a so-called radial length LR for handling and storage operations of the box 4.

Box 4 is provided with a code in the form of an RFID tag to identify it in exchange and storage operations.

The equipment magazine 1 has the shape of a cylindrical, rotating tower, with a vertical axis ZZ represented by the center O carrying on the periphery cells 11 oriented radially with respect to the central axis ZZ of the cylindrical tower, represented by the "O center".

Cells 11 form slots each intended to receive a box 4. These slots are identified by their cylindrical coordinates (angular position and height position). They are distributed in rings over the height of the cylindrical tower 1 and the cells correspond in the vertical direction and form vertical columns of the same angular orientation.

The cylindrical tower is driven in rotation in a controlled manner by a drive device 12 to drive the selected cell into an exchange zone 13 which is a column formed by the cells 11 of each level of height.

Each cell 11 is a lying U-shaped support composed of a back 111 connected to two branches 112, parallel to each other and parallel to the median axis of the support which is a radial axis, passing through the center O.

The back 111 is fixed to the structure or cylindrical wall of the tower 1. The branches 112 are each formed by an angle iron having a vertical side 112a and a horizontal side 112b. The vertical sides 112a are separated by a distance substantially equal to the width of a box 4. The sides 112b, facing each other, leave between them a gap 113 used for gripping the box 4 which rests on the two horizontal sides of the support formed by cell 11.

The structure of a cell 11 appears in the example of cell 11 shown in . That shows the length of the horizontal sides 112b substantially equal to the radial length LR of a box 4 while the vertical sides 112a have a length less than this radial length LR. The vertical sides 112a each have a flared end 112aa to guide and recenter a box that arrives offset at the entrance to cell 11.

To facilitate the presentation of the installation, the comprises an axis OX representing the radial direction passing through the center O of the drum and the horizontal axis (or the vertical plane passing through this axis) passing through the exchange zone 13; the transverse direction Y passes through the exchange zone 52 with an exchanger conveyor 5 of the production line LP1 (LP). The transfer for the box 4 exchange is carried out by a transfer carriage 3 movable in the radial direction OX and the vertical direction OZ, perpendicular to the plane of the , to access, on the one hand, all the levels of the exchange zone 13 and, on the other hand, and the transfer carriage cooperates with the exchange zone 52 of the LP production line (LP1).

The transfer carriage 3 is carried by an elevator 2 equipped with an elevator carriage 22 movable along the vertical rail 21 of the elevator. This elevator carriage 22 carries a horizontal rail 23 parallel to the radial direction OX. The transfer carriage 3 thus describes a trajectory in the radial direction OX to access the exchange zone 13 or come to position itself along the rail 23 facing the other exchange zone 52 in the direction Y1. The transfer carriage 3 has a pivoting arm 31 carried by a motor pivot 311. The arm 31 is provided with a fork 32 formed by a horizontal central blade 321 and on either side of the latter, a side 322 terminated by a flared end 322a. According to Figures 2B, 3, the end 321a of the blade 321 is provided with an edge 321a to hang the box 4.

The shows the detail of one embodiment of the transfer carriage 3. The transfer carriage 3 in the form of a console has a base 30 constituted by a vertical plate fitted with rolling members, not shown, and attached to the horizontal rail 23 on edge. The swivel arm 31 is actuated by the motor pivot 311.

The arm 31 is formed of two sections 312 connected by the bottom 313 and on which circulates in translation, the head 323 of the fork 32 thus forming a telescopic assembly.

The shows this assembly deployed, the head 323 being at the end of the arm 31 while in the retracted position, the head comes close to the carriage and the blade 321 passes between the two sections 312. The head 323 carries the central blade 321 so mobile in height to make it pass under the box 4 between the two horizontal sides 112b of a cell 11 or between the side transport paths 51 of the exchanger conveyor 5 and then rise to lift the box 4 and transport it.

The sides 322 are, for example, split in height and formed of blades bent in a U, with flared ends.

The shows the position of the fork 32 brought closer to the cell 11 and engaged in the latter with its central blade 321 coming between the horizontal sides 112b. The highlights the complementarity of the length of the sides of the cell 11 and those of the fork 32 so that schematically the sum of the lengths of a vertical side 112a of the cell 11 and of a side 322 of the fork is lower to the length of the blade 321 or of the horizontal sides 112b which corresponds to the radial length LR.

The fork 32 is equipped with a sensor 33 to detect the RFID tag of the box 4 that it carries.

The shows the two directions of rotation -R, -R of tower 1, which reduces the amplitude of the rotation movements necessary between two accesses of a selected cell of the exchange zone 13.

Starting from the end of a box exchange operation between the transfer trolley 3 and the tower 1, if the trolley 3 must take up another box 4, this other box 4 now selected is either at the same height as that of the carriage 3 or at a different height and its angular position is rarely in the diametrically opposite position of the exchange zone and more frequently in one or the other half-perimeter from the exchange zone for this stopped position of tower 1. Thus, the tower will only have to rotate at most by an angle less than ± 180° (+R, -R and not perform a complete rotation.

The shows, by way of example, the installation associated with two production lines LP1, LP2 served by the same transfer trolley 3. The conveyor-exchanger 5, associated with the line LP1 makes an angle direction α with respect to the radial direction OX of movement of the carriage 3. This direction is, for example, 90° with respect to the axis OX. But this is only an example depending on the context of the installation and the imposed position of the LP1 production line.

The only imperative is that the fork 32 can exchange with the conveyor-exchanger 5 while being in the axis of the latter. This requires the transfer carriage 3 to position itself for its pivot point 311 either at the intersection of the axis Y1Y1 of the conveyor-exchanger 5 and the path OX since the fork 32 performs a deployment movement (translation to reach the exchange zone 52. although it would be possible to reach this zone 52 by tilting the fork 32 above the zone 52 then lowering it to put the box down, such a maneuver would not allow, on the one hand, hand, to align the box on the direction of the exchange zone and, on the other hand, that would not make it possible to remove a box from the exchange zone 52 with the simple fork 32.

To simplify the construction and maneuvering of the transfer trolley, it is preferable to use the telescopic movement of the arm 31 of the fork 32.

Finally, it should be emphasized that the carriage being controlled, the angle α may be different from one conveyor-exchanger 5 to another depending on the context of the installations.

The is a perspective view of the installation in a structure forming the enclosure 100 receiving a casing to insulate the installation.

This figure shows the cylindrical tower 1 with the cells accessible on the periphery. The exchange zone 13 is not materialized; it is simply the position of the column of cells A accessible from carriage 3.

Near tower 1 is a shaft 20 of elevator 2 with its vertical rail 21. exchange 52 of a conveyor-exchanger. This conveyor-exchanger 5 emerges from the enclosure 100. The control unit 6 is entirely equal to this enclosure 100.

The shows a perspective view of the elevator 2, of its cage-like structure 20 carrying the vertical rail 21 and the markers 211 allowing the elevator carriage to be positioned at the appropriate height. Carriage 22 carries transport carriage 3 on raised horizontal rail 23.

As an example of installation applied to a production line of footwear for which pairs of lasts (left lasts, right lasts) are needed to assemble the elements of the upper and of the sole according to the articles and the sizes .

Thus, it is conceivable to make a tower 1 with 500 cells in the form of cylindrical means with a diameter of 5.4 meters and a height of 1 meter.

NOMENCLATURE OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS

1 Equipment magazine in the form of a rotating vertical cylindrical tower

11 Cell

111 Back attached to cylinder

112 Branch

112a Vertical side

112aa Flared end

112b Horizontal side

113 Clear gap between horizontal sides

12 Spinning device

13 Trading area

2 Elevator

21 Elevator track

211 Landmark

22 Elevator Trolley

23 Horizontal track

3 Transfer trolley

31 Swivel arm

311 Controlled motor pivot

32 Fork

321 Center blade

321a Center blade tip

322 Side

322a Flared end

323 Fork crown

33 Sensor

4 Equipment box

41 Background

42 Side

43 Identification label

5 Receiving conveyor

51 Transport side paths

52 Exchange area with the transfer cart

6 Control unit

O Center of rotation of cylinder 11

XX Travel direction of the transfer trolley 3

YY Transfer Cart 3 Exchange Direction

ZZ Vertical direction

E Equipment

LP1 Production line

LP2 Production line

LR Radial length of the box

Claims (7)

Replaceable equipment management facility of a production line (LP) including an equipment store
- an installation linking the store and the production line (LP) to provide it with the equipment necessary for production and to take back the equipment thus replaced and store it in the store,
installation characterized in that it comprises
A) a set of boxes (4) intended to contain the equipment (E) and each identified by a code, each box having a radial length (LR) and a width,
B) an equipment magazine in the form of a vertical cylindrical tower (1) carrying cells (11), radial, forming referenced storage locations, distributed in superimposed crowns and accessible from the outside on the periphery of the cylindrical tower (1 ),
- a rotary drive device (12), controlled
- an exchange zone (13) extending over the entire height of the cylinder (1) and formed by a column of cells (11)
C) an elevator (2) associated with the exchange zone (13) comprising
- a vertical elevator rail (21)
- an elevator carriage (22) movable on the vertical rail (21)
- a horizontal rail (23) oriented radially with parallax relative to the center of rotation (O) of the tower (1)
D) a transfer cart (3)
- movable on the horizontal rail (23) of the elevator carriage (22) while describing a radial path passing through the axis of the cylindrical tower (1) between a position of access to the exchange zone (13) of the tower (1) and an exchange zone (52) of a conveyor (5) connected to the production line (LP)
E) a conveyor (5) forming an exchange zone (52) for exchanging a box of equipment (4) with the transfer trolley (3).
F) a control unit (5)
- receiving requests for equipment from the production line (LP1)
- generating control signals for
* control the positioning of the cell (11) selected from the magazine (1) in the exchange zone (13)
* order the transfer trolley (3) to come in front of the selected cell (11) in the exchange column to exchange the box
* order the transfer trolley (3) to exchange the selected box (4) with the conveyor (5) of the production line (LP) Equipment management installation according to claim 1,
characterized in that
the radial cell (11) is a lying U-shaped support open towards the periphery, in a radial orientation with respect to the tower comprising:
- a back (111) bordered by two branches (112) each formed by an angle iron having a vertical side (112a) and a horizontal side (112b) separated from the other horizontal side by a free interval (113), the side horizontal (112b) having the length equal to the radial length (LR) of the box (4) and the vertical sides (112a) having a length less than the radial length (LR) and being separated by the width of a box ( 4)
- the transfer trolley (3) has a pivoting arm (31) provided with a fork (32) having a central blade (321) of length equal to the radial length (LR) of a box (4) and of sides (322) separated by the width of a box (4) and of a length less than the radial length of the box, so that in an exchange zone (13, 52) the fork (32) can pass with its blade central (322) under the bottom (41) of a box (4) between the horizontal sides (112b) on which the box (4) rests or the lateral paths (51) of the exchange zone (13, 51) , the sides (322) of the fork (32) partially bordering the longitudinal sides of the box (4). Equipment management installation according to claims 1 and 2,
characterized in that
the horizontal rail (23) of the elevator carriage (22) is parallel to the radial direction of the pivot (311) of the arm (31) of the fork (32) passing through the center (O) of the drum. Equipment management installation according to claim 2,
characterized in that
the sum of the length of a side (322) of the fork (32) and a vertical side (112a) of the branch of a cell (11) is less than the radial length (LR) of the radial side d a box (4). Equipment management installation according to claim 2,
characterized in that
the pivoting arm (31) of the carriage (3) is telescopic with respect to its pivot (311). Equipment management installation according to claim 2,
characterized in that
the sides (322) of the fork (32) and/or the vertical sides (112a) of the legs (112) have flared ends (322a, 112aa). Equipment management installation according to claim 6,
characterized in that
the fork (32) is equipped with an RFID sensor.