JP2005246575A - Vacuum suction pad - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vacuum suction pad wherein it is surely confirm whether an object to be sucked has been sucked, and the breakage of a lip and other defects are also surely confirmed. <P>SOLUTION: The vacuum suction pad comprises a rubber pad for sucking the object, and a built-in touch sensor which has a feeler inserted into the center of the rubber pad, and has an operation point inside the lip. The presence or absence of the object to be sucked is confirmed by bringing the feeler in the rubber pad into direct contact with the object, and transmits a signal. By this configuration, the uncertainty of the conventional vacuum suction pad, which has indirectly confirmed the presence or absence of the object from the variation of the vacuum pressure detected by a vacuum pressure sensor until now, and the demerits due to a method by external instruments, which require a large floor space and a large cost, are improved. At the same time, the unnecessary consumption of air in sucking and transporting a large number of workpieces, and other demerits are eliminated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum suction pad capable of reliably confirming whether or not an adsorbed material has been adsorbed and whether the lip is broken or other reasons.

  In a conventional vacuum suction pad, the presence or absence of an adsorbate is indirectly confirmed by a vacuum pressure sensor from the change in vacuum pressure. For this reason, the change in vacuum pressure could not be confirmed with certainty whether or not an object was adsorbed, lip breakage or other reasons. As another confirmation method, an external device such as an area sensor or an image processing system was sometimes added. However, not only a large installation space was required, but also a large cost was required.

  Furthermore, when a large number of workpieces are sucked and transported at the same time with a conventional vacuum suction pad, vacuum is generated even in places where there are no workpieces. Therefore, if a vacuum generator such as an ejector is used, air consumption is wasted. It was generated.

  Furthermore, in order to reduce the air consumption, there are cases where a large number of vacuum generating circuits are branched when a large number of workpieces are sucked and conveyed simultaneously by a single vacuum generator (including an ejector and a vacuum pump). In this case, there is a problem that if there is no work piece even at one place, or if suction failure occurs even at one place, a vacuum leak occurs and all the works become suction failure.

  In this way, the problem with the conventional vacuum suction pad, that is, the uncertainty of confirming the presence or absence of the adsorbate indirectly by the change of vacuum pressure, the large installation space, and the method by the expensive external equipment There is a need to improve, eliminate unnecessary air consumption when sucking and transporting a large number of workpieces at the same time, and creating a safer and more reliable suction transport system.

  The present invention was created in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum suction pad that does not take up extra space and can realize a highly reliable confirmation method at low cost. Another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum suction pad capable of directly confirming the presence or absence of an adsorbate with a touch sensor and simultaneously monitoring a pressure change with a vacuum pressure sensor.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a vacuum suction pad having a rubber pad that sucks an object, and has a built-in touch sensor having a contactor inserted in the center of the rubber pad and having an operating point inside the lip. Thus, the contact in the rubber pad is brought into contact so that the presence or absence of an adsorbed substance can be confirmed and a signal can be transmitted.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the touch sensor is mounted in a rod that does not obstruct the suction from the horizontal vacuum outlet, and the contact is directed downward, whereby the suction of the horizontal vacuum outlet is performed. The configuration is such that the operating point of the contact can be changed without hindering.

  Furthermore, the invention according to claim 3 does not block the suction from the vertical vacuum outlet by attaching the touch sensor to a holder portion having a ventilation path that does not block the suction from the vertical vacuum outlet. In this way, the operating point of the contact can be changed.

  Furthermore, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the touch sensor is attached so as to be displaced in a right angle direction by a dog provided in the contact element, so that the position of the operating point of the contact element can be adjusted by moving the touch sensor in a right angle direction. It was constructed so that fine adjustment could be easily performed.

  Furthermore, the invention according to claim 5 can easily cope with the position adjustment of the operating point of the contactor and the change of the pad rubber by attaching the rubber pad via the adjusting screw screwed into the pad mounting portion. It was configured as follows.

  The vacuum suction pad according to the present invention is a vacuum suction pad provided with a rubber pad for sucking an object, and has a built-in touch sensor having a contactor inserted into the center of the rubber pad and having an operating point inside the lip. Therefore, since the presence or absence of an adsorbed substance can be confirmed and a signal can be output by contacting a contact having an operating point on the inner side of the rubber pad, there is an excellent effect that a highly reliable confirmation method can be realized.

  Further, the vacuum suction pad according to the invention of claim 2 is characterized in that the touch sensor is attached with a contact point facing downward in a rod that does not block suction from a vacuum outlet in a lateral direction. Therefore, an excellent effect is obtained in that the operating point of the contact can be changed without obstructing the intake of the vacuum outlet in the horizontal direction.

  In addition, the vacuum suction pad according to the invention of claim 3 is characterized in that the touch sensor is attached to a holder portion having an air passage that does not block suction from a vacuum outlet in the vertical direction. Therefore, an excellent effect is obtained in that the operating point of the contact can be changed without obstructing the intake air from the vacuum outlet in the vertical direction.

  Further, the vacuum suction pad according to the invention of claim 4 is characterized in that the touch sensor is mounted so as to be displaceable in a right angle direction by a dog provided on the contactor. This brings about an excellent effect that the fine adjustment of the position of the operating point of the contact can be simplified by taking in and out the direction.

  In addition, the vacuum suction pad according to the invention of claim 5 is characterized in that the rubber pad is attached via an adjustment screw screwed into the pad attachment portion. It has an excellent effect that it can easily cope with adjustment and change of pad rubber.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of the vacuum suction pad of the present application, where (a) is a free state before being attracted to an object, (b) is a state of being attracted to the object, and FIG. 2 is a position adjustment of the operating point of the contactor. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an example in which a vacuum outlet is provided in the longitudinal direction, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an example in which the touch sensor is installed in a perpendicular direction, and FIG. 5 is a rubber pad. It is sectional drawing which shows the example attached so that change of this or the position adjustment of an operating point was possible.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the vacuum suction pad of the present application includes an adapter 1 and a rod 2, and the adapter 1 has a vacuum outlet 3. A rubber pad 4 is provided at the tip of the adapter 1, and the rubber pad 4 has a lip 5. When the contact 6 is pushed and displaced, the touch sensor 7 is operated. When the rubber pad 4 is adsorbed to the object B as shown in FIG. 1A, the contact 6 is not pushed in the free state before adsorbing to the object B as shown in FIG. The object B pushes the contact 6 as shown by the arrow A, and when the operating point is passed, the signal is switched from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON, and a seating signal is transmitted via the lead wire 7a.

  In the case of FIG. 2, the touch sensor 7 is locked with a lock nut 9 by screwing a screw 8 engraved around the casing 7 b into the female screw 2 a of the rod 2 standing on the adapter 1. When the contact 6 for operating the touch sensor 7 is thin and long, a contact guide 11 having an air passage 10 is provided. In this case, after the lock nut 9 is loosened, the touch sensor 7 is rotated to adjust the position of the operating point of the contact 6, and then the lock nut 9 can be locked again. Further, if the stroke of the screw 8 around the casing 7 b of the touch sensor 7 is increased, there is an advantage that the operating point position of the contact 6 can be changed greatly even when the rubber pad 4 is changed.

  In the case of FIG. 3, the vacuum outlet 3 is at the upper end in the longitudinal direction of the rod 2 erected on the adapter 1 with the rubber pad 4 attached to the lower surface. The touch sensor 7 incorporated in the rod 2 is screwed into the female screw 2a of the rod 2 and is stably attached to the rod 2 via a touch sensor holder 12 having a ventilation path 10 around it.

  In the case of FIG. 4, the contact 6 is held by two contact guides 11, 11, has a conical dog 13 in the middle, and is biased by a spring 14. Yes. In this case, the touch sensor 7 having the rotating spherical contact 15 is attached to the adapter 1 in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction. Then, when the rubber pad 4 is attracted to the object B and the object B is displaced upward in FIG. 4 against the contact 6 against the spring 14, the spherical contact 15 is moved outward by the large diameter portion of the conical dog 13. When the touch sensor 7 is activated, the signal is switched from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON, and the signal is transmitted. In this case, the vacuum outlet 3 is horizontal in the figure, but may be in the vertical direction. Further, according to the configuration of FIG. 4, the operating point position of the contact 6 can be finely adjusted by moving the touch sensor 7 in and out in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the adapter 1.

  In the case of FIG. 5, the rubber pad 4 is attached via an adjustment screw 18 screwed into a screw 17 around the pad attachment member 16 fixed to the adapter 1, and the contactor 6 is moved by moving the attachment position. The operation point position is configured to be finely adjusted. That is, the screw 17 around the pad mounting member 16 of the rubber pad 4 is lengthened, the rubber pad 4 side is fixed with an adjusting screw (holding nut) 18, the adapter 1 side is fixed with a screw-in nut 19, and these adjusting screws ( If an adjustment margin of dimension L is provided between the presser nut 18) and the screw nut 19, the position of the operating point of the contact 6 can be finely adjusted within the range of the adjustment margin.

  Further, the position adjustment of the operating point of the contact 6 shown in FIG. 5 is performed by providing the position adjusting means of the touch sensor 7 shown in FIG. 2, that is, the screw 8 around the casing 7 b of the touch sensor 7. It may be possible to cope with the change of the rubber pad 4 having a different thickness by being screwed into the female threaded portion of the rod 2 and used in combination with a configuration in which the position of the operating point is finely adjusted by locking with the lock nut 9. .

It is a conceptual diagram of this-application vacuum suction pad, Comprising: (a) is the free state before attracting | sucking to an object, (b) is the state attracted | sucked to the object. It is sectional drawing which shows one example of position adjustment of the operating point of a contactor. It is sectional drawing which shows the example at the time of providing a vacuum outlet in the vertical direction. It is sectional drawing which shows the example which installed the touch sensor in the orthogonal direction. It is sectional drawing which shows the example attached so that change of the rubber pad or position adjustment of an operating point was possible.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Adapter 2 Rod 3 Vacuum outlet 4 Rubber pad 5 Lip 6 Contact 7 Touch sensor 8 Screw 9 Lock nut 10 Ventilation path 11 Contact guide 12 Touch sensor holder 13 Conical dog 14 Spring 15 Spherical contact 16 Mounting screw 17 Screw part 18 Presser nut 19 Threaded nut B Object L Dimension

Claims (5)

  A vacuum suction pad provided with a rubber pad for sucking an object, wherein a touch sensor having a contactor inserted into the center of the rubber pad and having an operating point inside the lip is incorporated.   2. The vacuum suction pad according to claim 1, wherein the touch sensor is attached with a contact facing downward in a rod that does not block suction from a vacuum outlet in a lateral direction. 2. The vacuum suction pad according to claim 1, wherein the touch sensor is attached to a holder portion having a ventilation path that does not block suction from a vacuum outlet in a vertical direction.   The vacuum suction pad according to claim 1, wherein the touch sensor is attached to be displaceable in a right angle direction by a dog provided on the contact.   The vacuum suction pad according to claim 1, wherein the rubber pad is attached via an adjustment screw screwed into a pad attachment member.

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