JP2003275637A - Cleaning device for coating nozzle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply scrape off a coating agent deposited on an outer periphery at a nozzle tip end of the coating nozzle without wasting a cleaning liquid. <P>SOLUTION: A brush part 22a of a cleaning brush 22 is disposed on an inner periphery of a cleaning brush holder 16 rotatably supported to an arm 17. At cleaning work, the cleaning brush 22 is rotated by a driving force from a motor unit through the cleaning brush holder 16 and the coating agent deposited on the nozzle tip end 7b of the coating nozzle 7a provided on the coating head 7 is scraped off by a rotation contact of the brush part 22a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coating nozzle cleaning device for cleaning a nozzle tip portion of a coating nozzle for discharging a coating agent.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in the process of manufacturing a vehicle body, for example, in a process of applying a viscous coating agent such as an adhesive to a coating portion such as a hemming structure portion or a non-weldable portion, A technique of automatically applying a coating agent using a robot is known.

By the way, in a coating process using a coating robot, a coating agent discharged from the tip of the nozzle of a coating head fixed to the coating robot is coated on a coating site at a predetermined ratio. Therefore, after the application is completed, the coating agent remains on the peripheral surface of the nozzle tip portion.
If this coating agent is left unattended, the coating agent will scatter around when the coating robot moves in the movement area, and the peripheral devices and the vehicle body panel will be contaminated, and the coating agent will be unusable at the start of the next coating operation. It is necessary to clean the tip of the nozzle after the completion of coating to remove the remaining coating agent, since a large amount of the coating may be applied or adhesion may adversely affect the work.

Conventionally, in the cleaning work of the tip portion of the nozzle, an operator regularly wipes it off manually by using a waste cloth or the like. Since it has to be stopped, there is a problem that production efficiency decreases.

To deal with this, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-30
In Japanese Patent No. 9309, a cleaning device is arranged in a moving area of a coating robot, and after the coating work is completed in a predetermined manner,
The coating head is exposed to the cleaning device by the movement of the coating robot, the cleaning liquid is sprayed on the nozzle tip of the coating nozzle provided in the coating head, and the coating agent remaining on the outer periphery of the nozzle tip is washed away, and then, A technique is disclosed in which air is blown to blow off the cleaning liquid and the nozzle tip portion is dried.

[0006]

However, in the technique disclosed in the above-mentioned publication, since the cleaning liquid is sprayed to wash away the coating material adhering to the tip of the nozzle, a facility for spraying the cleaning liquid is required. In addition to the above, the cleaning liquid must be always provided, so that there is an inconvenience that equipment cost and running cost increase.

Further, since the cleaning liquid is sprayed on the tip of the nozzle to wipe off the applied coating material, the cleaning liquid and the coating material are mixed in the collection container, and the cleaning liquid can be reused. Is not possible, the consumption of the cleaning liquid is increased, and a large amount of the used cleaning liquid is generated. Therefore, the waste treatment cost is also increased, which is uneconomical.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention eliminates the need for equipment for injecting a cleaning liquid and the cleaning liquid, and by eliminating the cleaning using the cleaning liquid, it is possible to reduce the cost of the entire apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning device for a vehicle.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cleaning device for a coating nozzle that cleans the coating agent adhering to the nozzle tip of a coating nozzle that discharges the coating agent, driven by a motor unit. A cleaning brush holder that is rotatable and a cleaning brush that is disposed on the inner circumference of the cleaning brush holder and that cleans the tip end portion of the nozzle by rotational contact.

In such a structure, since the rotating cleaning brush is used to wipe off the coating material adhering to the outer periphery of the nozzle tip portion, the cleaning liquid and the equipment for spraying the cleaning liquid are not required, and the structure is simplified. Can be realized.

In this case, preferably, 1) the brush portion of the cleaning brush is in tangential contact with the tip of the nozzle.

2) A scattering prevention shroud is fixedly provided on the end surface of the cleaning brush holder on the insertion side of the nozzle tip portion.

3) The cleaning brush is replaceable.

4) The cleaning brush holder is mounted in place of the cutter blade of the tip welding gun tip dresser device.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of a coating nozzle cleaning device.

Reference numeral 1 in the figure is a 6-axis vertical multi-joint type coating robot having a base 2 fixed to the floor, a lower arm 3, an upper arm 4 and a wrist 5.

The lower arm 3 is attached to the base 2 so as to be rotatable and swingable in the front-rear direction. The base end of the upper arm 4 is connected to the upper end of the lower arm 3 so as to be vertically swingable. Further, the wrist 5 is attached to the tip of the upper arm 4 so as to be rotatable about the axis of the upper arm 4 and rotatable about the axis perpendicular to the axis of the upper arm 4.

A coating head 7 is attached to the wrist 5. The coating head 7 is supplied with a viscous coating agent such as an adhesive agent supplied from a coating agent supply device (not shown), and the coating agent is applied to the coating nozzle 7 a projecting from the coating head 7. Tip (hereinafter "nozzle tip")
7 b) and is applied to the coating target portion of a coating target member (not shown).

The teaching operation of the coating robot 1 is performed according to the teaching data stored in the robot control unit 8. This teaching data is
It includes a work operation program for applying a predetermined coating agent to the application site, an operation program for a nozzle cleaning operation for cleaning the nozzle tip portion 7b of the application nozzle 7a of the application head 7, and the like.

On the other hand, reference numeral 11 is a nozzle cleaning device, which is installed in the operating area of the coating robot 1 and at a position where it does not hinder the coating work. 2 and 3
As shown in FIG. 3, in this nozzle cleaning device 11, a table 13 is provided so as to project from the middle of a column 12 standing on the floor in the horizontal direction, and a tray 14 is fixedly mounted on the top surface of the tip of the table 13. A collection container 15 is placed on 14.

An arm 17 extends from the upper end of the column 12 along the table 13, and a cleaning brush holder 16 is rotatably held at the tip of the arm 17. Further, a motor unit 18 driven by electric power or air is vertically provided on the base side of the arm 17, and the cleaning brush holder 16 is rotationally driven by the motor unit 18.

A hopper 19 is arranged below the cleaning brush holder 16. The hopper 19 is held by the column 12 via a bracket 20, and oil is stored inside. A drain cock 21 is connected to a discharge port 19a formed at the lower end of the hopper 19. Further, the drain port 21 a communicating with the lower end of the drain cock 21 faces the recovery container 15.

As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the cleaning brush holder 16 has a cylindrical shape, and a plurality of vertical grooves 16a are formed in the inner periphery at equal intervals.

A cleaning brush 22 is replaceably mounted on the inner circumference of the cleaning brush holder 16. As shown in FIG. 8, the cleaning brush 22 includes a brush portion 22a and a binding portion 22b that binds the base portion of the brush portion 22a, and the binding portion 22b is formed on the inner circumference of the cleaning brush holder 16. It is formed into a shape that can be fitted into the vertical groove 16a.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a ring-shaped brush stopper 2 is provided on the lower end surface of the cleaning brush holder 16.
3, the outer peripheral edge of the shatterproof shroud 24 is fixed to the upper end surface protruding from the upper surface of the arm 17, and the brush stopper 23 and the shatterproof shroud 24 are used for cleaning. The binding portion 22b of the brush 22 is prevented from coming off.

A nozzle guide hole 24a is formed in the center of the shatterproof shroud 24, and the coating nozzle 7a protruding from the lower end of the coating head 7 is exposed from above the nozzle guide hole 24a. .

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, when the cleaning brush 22 is mounted in the vertical groove 16a formed in the inner periphery of the cleaning brush holder 16, the tip of the brush portion 22a of each cleaning brush 22 is attached. Are set so as to make tangential contact with the outer circumference of the nozzle tip portion 7b.

Next, the cleaning operation of the nozzle tip portion 7b using the nozzle cleaning device 11 will be described.

The robot control unit 8 counts the coating work time of the portion to be coated by the coating robot 1, and when the coating work time reaches the set time, the nozzle cleaning work is executed after the coating work is completed. In this case, the nozzle cleaning work may be performed once or every time the set number of coating processes are completed.

In the nozzle cleaning work, first, the coating robot 1 is operated in accordance with the nozzle cleaning operation which is taught in advance, and the nozzle tip portion 7b of the coating nozzle 7a provided on the coating head 7 is moved to the nozzle cleaning device 11. The cleaning brush holder 16 provided at the upper side is exposed.

At this time, a drive signal is output to the motor unit 18 of the nozzle cleaning device 11. In this case, when the motor unit 18 is an air motor, an air solenoid valve (not shown) provided in the motor unit 18 is turned on to supply compressed air to the motor unit 18 to rotationally drive the motor. . When the motor unit 18 is an electric motor, the robot control unit 8
The motor is directly driven to rotate by the drive signal from.

Then, the cleaning brush holder 16 driven by the motor unit 18 rotates at a constant speed,
The cleaning brush 22 fixedly provided on the inner circumference of the cleaning brush holder 16 integrally rotates in the same direction.

Next, the nozzle tip portion 7b is slowly lowered while keeping the axial center of the nozzle tip portion 7b substantially coincident with the rotation center of the cleaning brush holder 16, and the nozzle tip portion 7b is cleaned. Two
Enter the center of rotation of 2.

Then, the brush portion 22a of the cleaning brush 22 comes into rotational contact with the outer periphery of the nozzle tip portion 7b,
By this brush portion 22a, the coating material attached to the outer periphery of the nozzle tip portion 7b is wiped off. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the brush portion 22 of the cleaning brush 22 is
Since a is set to contact the outer circumference of the nozzle tip 7b in a tangential direction, the nozzle tip 7b can smoothly enter the rotation center of the cleaning brush 22.

After that, when the tip of the nozzle tip portion 7b penetrates the brush portion 22a and is immersed in the oil stored in the hopper 19, the lowering operation of the coating head 7 by the coating robot 1 is stopped. Maintain the condition for a certain period of time. Meanwhile, the outer periphery of the nozzle tip portion 7b is cleaned by the brush portion 22a of the cleaning brush 22, and the applied coating agent is further wiped off.

After a lapse of a certain time, the coating robot 1
The application head 7 is lifted in the vertical direction and the nozzle tip portion 7b is slowly pulled out from the cleaning brush holder 16. After all of the nozzle tip portion 7b is pulled out from the cleaning brush holder 16, the motor unit 1
A stop signal is output to 8 to stop the rotation of the cleaning brush holder 16.

After that, the coating robot 1 is returned to the normal coating work. Alternatively, it is moved to the standby position to prepare for the next coating operation.

On the other hand, the coating material wiped from the nozzle tip portion 7b by the cleaning brush 22 and the brush scraps generated during cleaning scatter in all directions, but the upper part of the cleaning brush holder 16 prevents scattering. Since they are covered with the shroud 24, they are not scattered from the upper part to the surroundings, and all are dropped and collected in the hopper 19 arranged below the cleaning brush holder 16. Accordingly, the wiped coating material and brush scraps generated during cleaning are removed by the nozzle cleaning device 11.
It does not scatter around.

Further, since the oil is stored in the hopper 19, the collected coating agent and brush scraps are dissolved or suspended in the oil, and the remaining coating agent is accumulated.

The coating material and the brush scraps collected in the hopper 19 are appropriately collected in the collection container 15 together with the oil by opening the drain cock 21. At this time, the collected oil is filtered by a filter to remove floating coating agent and brush dust, return the filtered oil to the hopper 19, and discard the coating agent and brush dust separated from the oil. To process. When returning the oil to the hopper 19, the amount of the oil is checked, and if the oil is insufficient, new oil is appropriately added.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the cleaning brush 22 is rotated to wipe the coating material adhering to the nozzle tip portion 7b, the conventional cleaning liquid is not required, which is economical. .

Further, since the cleaning brush 22 is replaceable, the cleaning brush holder 16 can be disassembled and cleaned when a new cleaning brush 22 is attached. Therefore, the maintainability is good and the durability can be improved.

In this case, instead of the cleaning brush 22 shown in FIG. 8, a cleaning brush 25 shown in FIG. 9 may be adopted. The cleaning brush 25 shown in the figure has a brush portion 25a disposed on the inner periphery of a bundling portion 25b formed in a cylindrical shape, and has a protrusion 25c formed on the outer periphery of the bundling portion 25b for cleaning. The cleaning brush 2 is adapted to be fitted and positioned in a vertical groove 16a formed on the inner circumference of the brush holder 16.
Since 5 can be assembled in the inner periphery of the cleaning brush holder 16 in an integrated state, it is easy to attach and detach.

Although the nozzle cleaning device 11 may be a dedicated device, a tip dresser device for dressing a welding tip provided at the tip of the gun of the spot welding robot may be used. In this case, the tip dresser is used. The cleaning brush holder 16 is attached instead of the cutter blade held by the apparatus. By diverting the tip dresser device as the nozzle cleaning device 11,
The chip dresser device that is no longer needed can be reused, and the equipment cost can be reduced.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By eliminating the need for equipment for injecting the cleaning liquid and the cleaning liquid and abolishing the cleaning using the cleaning liquid, the cost of the entire apparatus can be reduced, and other excellent effects are achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a cleaning device for a coating nozzle.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional side view of a nozzle cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a partially sectional front view of a nozzle cleaning device.

4 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a half sectional side view of the cleaning brush holder.

6 is a top view of FIG.

7 is a sectional view taken along line VII-VII of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a cleaning brush.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a cleaning brush according to another aspect.

[Explanation of symbols]

7 Application head 7a Coating nozzle 7b Nozzle tip 16 Cleaning brush holder 18 Motor unit 22,25 cleaning brush 22a, 25a brush section 24 Shroud for shatter prevention

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device for a coating nozzle for cleaning a coating agent adhering to a nozzle tip portion of a coating nozzle for discharging a coating agent, the cleaning brush holder being rotatable by a motor unit, and the cleaning brush. A cleaning brush for a coating nozzle, which is disposed on the inner circumference of a holder and cleans the nozzle tip portion by rotational contact. 2. The cleaning device for a coating nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the brush portion of the cleaning brush is in tangential contact with the tip of the nozzle. 3. The coating nozzle cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein a shatter preventing shroud is fixedly provided on an end surface of the cleaning brush holder on the insertion side of the nozzle tip portion. 4. The cleaning device for a coating nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning brush is replaceable. 5. The cleaning device for a coating nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning brush holder is mounted in place of a cutter blade of a tip dresser device for spot welding guns.