JP2002370819A - Transfer device for sanitary earthenware - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To precisely correct positional shifts in two directions of longitudinal and lateral directions in formed bodies of baked and unbaked products in a manufacturing process of sanitary earthenware. SOLUTION: The device is provided with a grasping means for grasping the formed body, a conveying means for conveying the formed body to the next process under the condition where the body is grasped, an advancing- directional position correcting means for correcting an advancing-directional position of the formed body, a right-angle directional position correcting means for correcting a right-angle-directional position right-angled to the advancing direction of the body, a position detecting means for detecting a coordinate position of the right-angle-directional position for conveying the formed body to the next process under the condition where the body is grasped, and a control means for controlling the right-angle-directional position correcting means to bring the formed body into prescribed coordinates when the body is conveyed to the next process, based on a detection signal by the position detecting means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring an unfired article and a molded article of a fired article used in a sanitary ware manufacturing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sanitary ware molded body is manufactured by a molding process, a drying process, a green body inspection process, a glaze process, a firing process, and the like.
It consists of an inspection and assembly process. In each process, the compact is placed on a dedicated pallet and transported to each work position by a transport facility such as a conveyor. At this time, a positional shift occurs in which the molded body moves from a predetermined position on the pallet due to a stop impact by a stopper or the like. When the molded body is transferred to the next process in such a state, for example, when drilling is performed by a robot based on data taught at a regular position, the drilling position becomes improper, When glazing is carried out, problems such as the inability to perform a glaze treatment on the molded body occur.

In order to cope with these problems, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-25027, the orientation of a molded body such as a wash basin is corrected, the position is detected, and finishing processes such as drilling, deburring, and filling are performed. Is disclosed.
In this device, the direction is corrected by pressing the compact placed on the pallet from one direction on the free roller,
By shifting the amount of positional shift in the left-right direction to the equipment in the next process based on image data captured by a CD camera or the like, problems due to positional shift are eliminated. On the other hand, as a method of correcting the positional deviation when the transfer is accompanied, for example, the molded body conveyed by the pallet is advanced in a form in which the advance is hindered by the air cylinder type arm of the transfer device which is lowered forward in the pallet advancing direction. A method is known in which after correcting the amount of displacement in the direction by a fixed amount (for the stroke amount of the air cylinder) for each product regardless of the size and shape of the molded body, the molded body is gripped and transferred to the target location. ing.

[0004]

However, in any of the conventional methods, only the direction can be corrected from one direction, and the positional deviation amounts in the front, rear, left, and right directions cannot be corrected.
Further, in the device described in JP-A-2000-25027, a planar shape is preferable as a surface on which the pressing member is applied because a method of attaching to the pressing member is used as a method of correcting positional deviation, and a surface shape on which the pressing member is applied However, there was a problem that it could not be applied to molded articles different from each other. Furthermore, in order to transmit the position shift amount as data to the equipment of the next process and to respond thereto, there is a problem that a control / analysis device for imaging data is required and a large-scale equipment is required. On the other hand, the above-described method of correcting the positional deviation accompanying the transfer has a problem in the positional accuracy when the compact is placed at a target place, and the quality of the compact may be inferior due to the variation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an unfired article and a fired article in the sanitary ware manufacturing process with respect to the position in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sanitary ware transfer device capable of accurately correcting a displacement.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a sanitary ware transfer device according to the present invention comprises a gripping means for gripping a molded body, and a state in which the molded body is gripped. A conveying means for conveying to the next step, a traveling direction position correcting means for correcting the position of the molded body in the traveling direction, and a right angle direction correcting means for correcting the position in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the molded body. A position detecting means for detecting the coordinate position in the perpendicular direction to be conveyed to the next step in a state in which the molded body is gripped, and the formed body is conveyed to the next step based on a detection signal of the position detecting means. And control means for controlling the right angle direction position correcting means so as to be at a predetermined coordinate position when it is performed. By doing so, the coordinate position of the molded body can be corrected to a predetermined coordinate position in the next process before the molded body is transported to the next process, and the data taught in the equipment of the next process can be used, and Predetermined work can be performed.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, at least the gripping means, the traveling direction position correcting means, the right angle direction position correcting means, and the position detecting means are mounted on the transporting means and move to the next step together with the molded body. To do.
By doing so, it is possible to easily correct even if the molded body is displaced during the conveyance.

[0008] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The traveling direction position correcting means includes a reference portion that serves as a reference for the traveling direction, and a pressing unit that presses the molded body itself against the reference portion. Do it. By doing so, a device for correcting the position of the molded body in the traveling direction can be realized with a simple configuration.

[0009] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
When the position in the traveling direction is corrected, the compact is placed on a pallet, and pallet support means is provided for supporting the pallet so that the pallet can move freely. By doing so, the molded body can move smoothly when the molded body is pressed by the pressing means, and deformation of the molded body can be prevented.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The position detection means measures the distance to the front, rear, left and right ends of the molded body or the vicinity thereof. By doing so, it is possible to correct not only the position in the left and right parallel directions of the molded body but also the position correction in the rotation direction.

[0011] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The position detecting means is a laser sensor. By doing so, it is possible to accurately measure the distance to the molded body without contact.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an arrangement of a sanitary ware transfer device according to one embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a transfer device, 1 is a previous process (green substrate inspection process after drying)
Conveyor 2 for carrying the green pallet A for inspection on which the green body C is placed into the transfer device 5, and 2 for detecting the product number of the molded body C disposed at the end of the conveyor 1. The CCD camera 3 is a first transfer conveyor for receiving the raw material inspection pallet A from the carry-in conveyor 1 in the transfer device 5, and the first transfer conveyor 3 is located below the initial position of the transfer device 5. A slide table with a lifting function incorporated in the lower part of the molded product 20 is used in the next process (glazing process).
Is a second transfer conveyor for transporting the glazing pallet B on which is mounted the next step (glazing step).

Next, the configuration of the transfer device 5 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. FIG. 2 shows a state before transferring the compact C of the transfer device 5. The transfer device 5 is roughly classified into a frame portion 16, a gripping device for gripping the molded body C, an elevating device for lifting and lowering the gripped molded body C, and a traveling direction position correcting device for correcting the position of the molded body C in the traveling direction. It comprises a right-angle position correcting device for correcting the position in the right-angle direction and a traversing device that moves and traverses. The frame portion 16 has four legs, and has a gate shape so that a pallet A for green body inspection and a pallet B for glaze, which carry the formed body C thereon and convey, pass therethrough.

The gripping device includes a mechanism for pressing the compact C by moving the pressing member 8 in the carrying-in direction of the compact C by driving an AC servomotor 7 for correcting the position of the compact C in the traveling direction; The air cylinder 9 includes a pressing member 19 that moves and presses in the unloading direction of the compact C by the retracting operation of the rod of the air cylinder 9. In this embodiment, the gripping device also functions as a traveling direction position correcting device. The pressing member 8 moves by a predetermined distance in the carrying direction of the molded body 20 by driving the AC servomotor 7 and pushes the molded body C back to correct the position in the traveling direction.

The elevating device rotates the ball screw 21 via the timing belt 20 by driving the cyclo (registered trademark) speed reducer 10 to vertically move the laser sensor mounting plate 17 for position detection in the vertical direction. It has become. By moving the plate 17 up and down, the plate 22 supporting the gripping device connected by the linear motion guides 23 and 24 also moves up and down.

The right angle position correcting device is a position detecting laser sensor 11L suspended from the plate 17,
The position to the compact C is measured by 1R, 12L, 12R, and the AC servomotor 13 is driven so that the distance detected by each of the laser sensors 11L, 11R is equal. AC servo motor 1 so that the distance detected by each becomes equal
4 is driven. AC servo motors 13, 14 respectively
The plate 22 supporting the holding device for the molded body C by the drive of the above-mentioned mechanism moves along the linear motion guides 23 and 24, and serves as a mechanism for correcting the position in the right-angle direction.

The traversing device is a mechanism that traverses along the ball screw 18 by driving the cyclo reducer 15.

Next, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, taking the transfer of the molded product C of the Western-style toilet bowl as an example, the position of the molded product C on the pallet A for green substrate inspection is corrected and transferred to the pallet B for glaze. The procedure for mounting and transporting to the next glaze process will be described. Here, it is assumed that the compact C moves from left to right on the paper.

The molded body C on the pallet A for raw material inspection is carried in from the carry-in conveyor 1, the product number is discriminated by the CCD camera 2 for product number detection, and then conveyed to the upstream end of the first transfer conveyor 3. Is done. After the pallet A for green substrate inspection is carried into the first transfer conveyor 3, the slide table 4 with the elevating function rises to lift the pallet A for green substrate inspection.

Next, the transfer device 5 is lowered from above to a position where the holding device of the transfer device 5 can hold the compact C. After the descent, the AC servomotor 7 drives the pressing member 8 by the drive 7 for a predetermined distance in the carrying-in direction of the compact C in order to perform positioning in the traveling direction, and presses the pressing member 8 against the compact C. As a result, the green substrate inspection pallet A is pushed back in the loading direction by the slide mechanism that moves freely in the loading direction, and the position in the traveling direction is corrected.

Next, the pressing member 19 is moved toward the compact C by pressing the air cylinder 9 by retracting the rod, and pressed, and the compact C is gripped by the pressing members 8 and 19. With the compact C held, the cyclo-speed reducer 10 ascends to the ascending limit.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a description will be given of a mechanism for performing positioning in the traveling direction and correcting the position of the gripped compact C in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction. FIG. 3 shows a front view of the right angle direction correcting device. First, two pairs (four directions) of laser sensors 11L, 11R, 12L, and 12R in front and rear directions with respect to the traveling direction are used to measure the distance to the molded body C, and molding is performed by control means (not shown) based on the measured distance data. The correction amount is instructed and controlled to the front and rear separate AC servomotors 13 and 14 so that the distance between the pair (two directions) across the body C is equal, and the position is corrected in the right-angle direction. At this time, the position can be corrected in parallel to the right angle direction in which the front and rear AC servo motors 13 and 14 are driven in the same direction, and the position can be corrected in the rotation direction when driven in opposite directions.

After correcting the position in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction while holding the compact C in this way, the compact C is applied to the glaze by the ball screw 18 driven by the cyclo reducer 15 shown in FIG. Move to the upper part of pallet B. The moving amount is the glazing pallet B after transfer for each product number of the molded body 20
Can be arbitrarily determined according to the mounting position on the device.

FIG. 6 is a view showing the state after the molded body C of the transfer device 5 is gripped and moved to the glaze pallet B side and transferred. After the movement, the transfer device is lowered to the lower limit by the cyclo reducer 10, and the compact C is placed on the glazing pallet B. Thereafter, the transfer of the compact C to the glazing pallet B is completed by the reverse operation of the gripping operation.

With such a configuration, since the correction in the front-rear direction and the left-right position direction is performed, in the manufacturing process of the sanitary ware, defects due to misalignment of the molded body are prevented.

In the present invention, the AC servomotor refers to a motor capable of high-precision positioning control and speed control by feedback from an encoder (a sensor for notifying the rotation speed and position of the motor) directly connected to the motor. . In the present invention, since high-precision positioning is required for positioning in the traveling direction and the right-angle direction, AC
It is desirable to use a servomotor.

In the present invention, the transfer of a molded article of a Western-style toilet bowl has been described. However, even for a molded article whose direction perpendicular to the traveling direction is asymmetric, such as a basin, each of the molded articles from the laser sensor to the molded article. By setting the distance in advance, the position can be corrected based on the set distance.

[0028]

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of defects due to misalignment of the molded body in each manufacturing process of sanitary ware.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an arrangement of a sanitary ware transfer device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state before the transfer device grips a formed body on a pallet for green substrate inspection.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a lifting device of the transfer device.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a right-angle direction position correcting device of the transfer device.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a right-angle direction position correcting device of the transfer device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which the transfer device grips the molded body and moves to the glaze pallet B side.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Conveyor for carrying in 2 ... CCD camera for part number detection 3 ... Conveyor for 1st transfer 4 ... Slide table with a raising / lowering function 5 ... Transfer device 6 ... Conveyor for 2nd transfer 7, 13, 14 ... AC servo motor 8 , 19 ... Pressing material 9 ... Air cylinder 10,15 ... Cyclo speed reducer 11L, 11R, 12L, 12R ... Position detection laser sensor 15 ... Cyclo speed reducer 16 ... Frame part 17 ... Laser sensor mounting plate 18,21 ... Ball screw Reference numeral 20: Timing belt 22: Plates 23, 24: Linear guide A: Pallet for green body inspection B: Pallet for glaze C: Molded body

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A grasping means for grasping a molded body, a conveying means for conveying the molded body to a next step while grasping the molded body, and a traveling direction position correcting means for correcting a position in a traveling direction of the molded body. A right-angle position correcting means for correcting a position in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the molded body, and a position for detecting the coordinate position in the perpendicular direction to be conveyed to the next process while holding the molded body. Detecting means, and control means for controlling the right-angle position correcting means so as to be at a predetermined coordinate position when the molded body is transported to the next step based on a detection signal of the position detecting means. An apparatus for transferring sanitary ware, characterized in that: 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least the gripping means, the traveling direction position correcting means, the right angle direction correcting means, and the position detecting means are mounted on the transporting means and move to the next step together with the molded body. The sanitary ware transfer device according to claim 1. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the traveling direction position correcting means includes a reference portion serving as a reference for the traveling direction, and pressing means for pressing the molded body itself against the reference portion. The sanitary ware transfer device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the position of the sanitary ware is corrected. 4. When correcting the position in the traveling direction,
The sanitary ware transfer device according to claim 3, further comprising pallet support means for mounting the compact on a pallet and supporting the pallet so that the pallet can move freely. 5. The sanitary ware transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the position detection means measures the distance to the front, rear, left and right ends of the molded body or the vicinity thereof. . 6. The sanitary ware transfer device according to claim 1, wherein said position detecting means is a laser sensor.