JP2006263528A - Coating material feeding apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coating material feeding apparatus and a coating material feeding method which can simultaneously perform coating material feed and coating material recovery without lowering productivity. <P>SOLUTION: The coating material feeding apparatus comprises a distributor pressure detection means 13 that detects the coating material pressure in a distributor 6 and a control means 17 that controls a pig movement means 14 and a compressed fluid feed means 15 so that the coating material pressure in the distributor detected by the distributor pressure detection means 13 becomes constant when a pig 10 is moved from the side of a color change valve 3 to the side of the distributor 6 by the pig movement means 14. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a paint supply apparatus and method for an automobile painting line, and more particularly to a paint supply apparatus and method using a distributor and a pig.

  The paint supply equipment used in automobile paint lines, etc., paint paint tanks filled with paint of each paint color, pumps that pump this paint, and paint from the paint tank to the paint machine (actually the color change valve unit) The paint tanks, pumps and paint pipes are installed in the number corresponding to the number of paint colors. And the paint of the coating color according to a vehicle specification is sprayed by switching the color change valve provided in the upstream of the coating machine.

  By the way, a common circulation pipe is provided for a plurality of paint colors, and a movable member (free piston) called a pig is passed through the paint pipe to supply paint or to remove the previous color paint remaining in the paint pipe. It has also been proposed to collect (Patent Document 1). In particular, in the case of a small-scale production coating color in which only a few units are applied per day, there is a problem that when the paint is circulated through the main pipe, the paint is deteriorated because it receives a shearing force for a long time.

  For this reason, a paint tank is arranged in the vicinity of the painting booth, and the paint is supplied to a plurality of painting machines via a distributor. An example of this type of paint supply apparatus is shown in FIG. The paint tank 9 is an airtight container, and is a system in which the paint is pushed out from the paint pipe 16 by introducing compressed air into the paint tank 9. As shown in FIG. 5, a distributor 6 having one paint inlet 61 and a plurality of paint outlets 62 a to 62 e (five in the figure) is connected to the tip of the paint pipe 16, and the paint pushed out from the paint tank 9. Flows out from the paint inlet 61 of the distributor 6 and then flows out equally from the five paint outlets 62a to 62e. A paint pipe 5a is connected to one paint outlet, for example, 62a, and the other end of the paint pipe 5a is connected to a switching valve 32 of a color change valve unit 3 provided for one paint machine 1. In this way, the other ends of the paint pipes 5a to 5e connected to the five paint outlets 62a to 62e of the distributor 6 are provided in five paint machines (only the paint machine 1 is shown in FIG. 4). Each color change valve unit 3 is connected to a switching valve 32.

  In order to guide the paint A in the paint tank 9 to the paint gun 1, compressed air is introduced into the paint tank 9 and the paint A in the paint tank 9 is pushed out to the distributor 6. As a result, the paint flows from the paint inlet 61 of the distributor 6 to the five paint outlets 62a to 62e, and is sent to the color change valve units 3 provided in the five coating machines 1 from here.

  Here, when the coating of the paint A is finished and the next color is a paint other than the paint A, a so-called color change operation is performed, but the paint pipe 5a between the distributor 6 and the color change valve unit 3 is used. A large amount of paint A remains in .about.5e, and pigs 10a to 10e are used in the paint pipes 5a to 5e in order to collect this. That is, there are provided pigs 10a to 10e that reciprocate in the paint pipes 5a to 5e between the distributor 6 and the changeover valve 32 of the color change valve unit 3, and when the paint is finished, the changeover valve of the color change valve unit 3 is provided. The pigs 10 a to 10 e are moved from the 32 side toward the distributor 6, and the paint A remaining therein is collected in the paint tank 9.

  However, in the system in which the paint is simultaneously supplied to the plurality of color change valve units 3 using the distributor 6, the paint pressure applied to the five paint outlets 62 a to 62 e is uniquely determined by the compressed air introduced into the paint tank 9. Therefore, for example, only one of the five coating machines 1 cannot be changed in advance. That is, if the pig (for example, 10a) is moved from the remaining one color change valve unit 3 toward the distributor 6 while supplying the paint A to the four coating machines 1, the paint is returned by the pig 10a. Since the pressure is added to the other four paint pipes 5, the paint pressure introduced into the other four paint pipes 5 fluctuates.

For this reason, this type of system has a problem that the color change operation cannot be executed unless the painting by the five coating machines 1 connected to the distributor 6 is completed. However, the five coating machines 1 are sequentially arranged from the entrance to the exit of the painting booth, and the objects to be coated are conveyed by a constant speed conveyor, so that the painting operation is started from the painting machine 1 on the entrance side and the entrance. The painting work is completed from the painting machine 1 on the side. Therefore, if the color changing operation cannot be executed unless the painting work of all the coating machines 1 is completed, a waiting time occurs during the start of the coating of the next color paint, and the productivity is remarkably lowered. .
JP 2002-126608 A

An object of this invention is to provide the coating material supply apparatus and method which can perform a coating material supply and a coating material collection | recovery simultaneously, without reducing productivity.
In order to achieve the above object, the paint supply apparatus of the present invention comprises a plurality of paint guns, a color change valve unit connected to each paint gun, and paint sent from the color change valve unit to the paint gun. A paint pump for feeding the paint, a paint tank for containing the paint in a sealed space, a compressed fluid supply means for supplying a compressed fluid into the paint tank, a paint inlet for introducing the paint in the paint tank, and the paint inlet A distributor having a plurality of paint outlets opened in communication with each other, a paint pipe connecting each paint outlet of the distributor and each color change valve unit, and reciprocating movement in each paint pipe And a pig moving means for moving the pig from the color change valve unit side to the distributor side In the feeder, the distributor pressure detecting means for detecting the paint pressure in the distributor, and when the pig is moved from the color change valve side to the distributor side by the pig moving means, the distributor pressure detecting means And a control means for controlling the pig moving means and the compressed fluid supply means so that the detected paint pressure in the distributor is constant.

  In order to achieve the above object, the paint supply method of the present invention includes a plurality of paint guns, a color change valve unit connected to each paint gun, and a paint sent from the color change valve unit. A paint pump for sending to a paint gun; a paint tank for containing paint in a sealed space; a compressed fluid supply means for supplying a compressed fluid into the paint tank; a paint inlet for introducing paint in the paint tank; A distributor having a plurality of paint outlets communicating with the paint inlet, paint pipes connecting the respective paint outlets of the distributor and the respective color change valve units, and the interiors of the respective paint pipes A reciprocating pig, and a pig moving means for moving the pig from the color change valve unit side to the distributor side. In a paint supply method using a paint supply device, a distributor pressure detecting step for detecting a paint pressure in the distributor, and when the pig is moved from the color change valve side to the distributor side by the pig moving means. And the step of controlling the pig moving means and the compressed fluid supply means so that the paint pressure in the distributor detected by the distributor pressure detecting step becomes constant.

  In the present invention, after supplying the paint to a plurality of color change valve units via the distributor, the remaining paint (pre-color paint) in the paint pipe connecting the distributor and the color change valve unit is applied to each pig. Collect in order into the paint tank. At this time, the pig moving means and the compressed fluid supply means are controlled so that the paint pressure of the paint pipe that continues to supply the previous color paint does not fluctuate. That is, in order to move the inside of the paint pipe to be collected by the pig from the color change valve unit to the distributor, the pressing force by the pig moving means is increased while the compressed fluid pressure applied to the paint tank is adjusted. As a result, it is possible to collect the paint remaining in the paint pipe that has been applied while continuing to supply the previous color paint at a constant pressure, so that the next color paint can be applied at a smooth timing without any waiting time. As a result, a decrease in productivity can be prevented.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a paint supply apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a paint booth using the paint supply apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an operation of the paint supply apparatus according to the present invention. It is a timing chart for demonstrating.

  The paint supply apparatus of this example includes a paint gun 1, a paint pump 2 (for example, a gear pump) for quantitatively feeding paint to the paint gun 1, and a paint supplied to the paint gun 1 from a variety of paints. A color change valve unit (hereinafter also referred to as CCV) 3 and a paint pipe 4 for guiding paint supplied from the CCV 3 to the paint gun 1.

  As shown in FIG. 2, for example, one painting gun 1 shown in FIG. 1 is mounted on one painting robot (20a to 20d) installed in a painting booth 21, and an operator 20e in a hand-blown zone. One unit is arranged. The painting robots 20a to 20d and the workers 20e, to which the painting gun 1 is mounted, are provided in the painting booth 21 in a staggered manner in order along the conveying direction of the bodies B1 to B5 that are the objects to be coated. Accordingly, painting is started from the upstream worker 20e, and painting is started in the order of the worker 20e → the painting robot 20a → the painting robot 20d → the painting robot 20b → the painting robot 20c. And when finishing the painting, it is also finished in this order.

  The CCV 3 is configured by providing the manifold 31 with a plurality (eight in the figure) of switching valves 32a to 32h, and paint is supplied to each of the switching valves 32a to 32g except the switching valve 32h. By selecting the valves 32 a to 32 g, the paint is supplied into the manifold 31 and supplied to the paint gun 1 by the paint pump 2 through the paint pipe 4. The switching valve 32h is supplied with a cleaning liquid and air for cleaning the paint flow path from the CCV 3 to the coating gun 1, and the pipe cleaning at the time of color change is performed by repeating the supply of the cleaning liquid and the supply of air.

  As a representative of the switching valves 32a to 32g to which the paint is supplied, FIG. 1 shows a detailed structure of the switching valve 32g. The switching valves 32a to 32f other than the switching valve 32g can be configured in the same manner as the switching valve 32g. Alternatively, the main supply pipe from the paint tank may be directly connected to the switching valves 32a to 32f. good.

  One end of the paint pipe 5a is connected to the representative switching valve 32g, and the paint is supplied from the paint tank 9A or 9B via the distributor 6A or 6B connected to the other end of the paint pipe 5a. Further, the switching valve 32g is supplied with cleaning liquid and compressed air through a pipe 7, and a control valve 8 for controlling the pressure of the compressed air supplied in the middle of the pipe 7 is provided.

  The paint supply apparatus of this example is preferable when applied to a paint color with a small number of produced units. For this reason, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the paint tank 9A containing paint A, the paint tank B containing paint B, and the paint A paint tank C containing C is provided in the vicinity of the paint booth 21, and four paint tanks 9A, 9B, 9C are connected to the three paint pipes 5a-5e via three distributors 6A, 6B, 6C. The paint is supplied to each of the painting machines 1 of the painting robots 20a to 20d and the painting machine of the operator 20e. FIG. 1 shows only two distributors 6A and 6B, and FIG. 2 shows only one distributor 6A.

  One distributor 6A to 6C provided for one paint tank 9A to 9C has one paint inlet 61 and a plurality of paint outlets 62a to 62e (five in the figure) as shown in FIG. The paint pushed out from the paint tanks 9A to 9C flows from the paint inlets 61 of the distributors 6A to 6C, and then flows out from the five paint outlets 62a to 62e evenly. As shown in FIG. 1, paint pipes 5a to 5e are connected to the paint outlets 62a to 62e, respectively, and the other ends of the paint pipes 5a to 5e are provided for the five coating machines 1, respectively. The color change valve units 3a to 3e (only 3a is shown in FIG. 1) are connected to a switching valve 32g.

  Each of the paint tanks 9A to 9C (only 9A and 9B are shown in FIG. 1) is a sealed tank, and a paint tank 9A will be described by taking one paint tank 9A shown in FIG. 1 as an example. Compressed air is supplied from the compressed fluid supply means 15A to the space in the tank 9A, and the paint A to which pressure is applied is pushed out to the distributor 6A through the paint pipe 16A, and then the paint A is distributed. It flows from the paint inlet 61 of the container 6A to the five paint outlets 62a to 62e, and is sent to the color change valve units 3a to 3e provided in the five coating machines 1 through the paint pipes 5a to 5e. Become.

  The compressed fluid supply means 15A to 15C can control the pressure of the compressed air supplied into the paint tanks 9A to 9C, for example, by a pressure control valve. Each of the paint tanks 9A to 9C is provided with pressure gauges 18A to 18C (only 18A and 18B are shown in FIG. 1) for detecting the compressed air pressure in the tank, and detected by the pressure gauges. The compressed air pressure is sent to the control means 17A to 17C (only 17A is shown in FIG. 1). Similarly, each of the distributors 6A to 6C is provided with pressure detecting means 13A to 13C (only 13A is shown in FIG. 1) for detecting the paint pressure in the distributor, and the pressure detecting means 13A to 13C. The paint pressure detected by 13C is sent to the control means 17A to 17C. The control procedure by the control means 17A to 17C will be described later.

  In this example, each of the paint pipes 5a to 5e connecting the distributors 6A to 6C and the switching valve 32g of the color change valve units 3a to 3e is provided with pigs 10a to 10e, and the remaining previous color The paint is collected in the paint tanks 9A to 9C. Therefore, one of the pig stations 11 is provided in each of the distributors 6A to 6C, and the other pig station 12 is provided in each of the switching valves 32g of the CCVs 3a to 3e, and is configured to be movable between the two pig stations 11 and 12. Has been.

  The pigs 10a to 10e of this example are the previous color paints remaining in the paint pipes 5a to 5e when moving from the pig station 12 of the switching valve 32g toward the pig station 11 of the distributors 6A to 6C when painting is finished. Is recovered in any one of the paint tanks 9A to 9C. The movement of the pigs 10a to 10e is performed by supplying compressed air from the pig moving means 14A to 14C (only 14A is shown in FIG. 1) at a predetermined pressure. Is done.

  Control means 17A-17C takes in paint pressure in distributors 6A-6C by distributor pressure detection means 13A-13C, and takes in compressed air pressure in paint tanks 9A-9C by pressure gauges 18A-18C. Then, the pig moving means 14A to 14C and the compressed fluid supply means 15A to 15C are controlled so that the paint pressure in the distributor becomes constant.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  Here, the paint A (for example, white, which corresponds to the previous color paint) accommodated in the paint tank 9A shown in FIG. 1 is supplied to the paint gun 1 via the distributor 6A and then accommodated in the paint tank 9B. A case where the applied paint B (for example, silver, which corresponds to the next color paint) is supplied to the coating machine 1 via the distributor 6B will be described as an example. FIG. 3 is a time chart at that time.

  First, the pigs 10a to 10e are accommodated in the pig stations 11 on the distributors 6A to 6C side, respectively. Further, the switching valves other than the switching valves 62g of the CCVs 3a to 3e are all closed, and the switching valve 32g is switched so as to guide the paint A sent through the paint pipes 5a to 5e to the manifold 31. . Then, when the paint A is pushed out to the paint pipe 16A by pressurizing the inside of the paint tank 9A containing the paint A by the compressed fluid supply means 15A, the paint A reaches the distributor 6A, and from the paint outlets 62a to 62e, The switch A reaches the switching valve 32g of the CCVs 3a to 3e while pushing the pigs 10a to 10e. When the paint pump 2 is operated here, the paint A is further sent in the order of the manifold 31 → the paint pipe 4 → the paint gun 1 to the object to be coated. In this case, the liquid is discharged (T1 to T3 in FIG. 3). The operation timing of the paint pump 2 detects, for example, that the pigs 10a to 10e moving by the supply of the paint A have arrived at the pig station 12, and the painting robots 20a to 20d and the worker 20e shown in FIG. It is executed by detecting that the bodies B1 to B5 as the objects to be coated have arrived at the position. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the paint supply timings T2 to T5 of the paint pipe 5b connected to the paint robot 20b are different from the paint timings T1 to T3 of the paint pipe 5a connected to the paint robot 20a. Delayed by the hour.

  When the coating of the coating material A by the coating robot 20a connected to the coating material piping 5a is completed, the fore-color coating material A remains in the coating material piping 5a between the color change valve unit 3a and the distributor 6A. Therefore, the pig moving means 14A is operated to move the pig 10a in the pig station 12 to the pig station 11 on the distributor 6A side, and this residual paint A is collected. Here, since the pressure of the paint A is acting on the pig 10a in the pig station 12, the pig moving means 14A pushes back the pig 10a with a pressure larger than this (T3 to T4 in FIG. 3). At the same time, when the pig 10a is pushed back, the residual paint in the paint pipe 5a is returned to the distributor 6A, so that the paint pressure is applied to the distributor 6A. Therefore, the controller 17A controls the pig moving means 14A and the compressed fluid supply means so that the compressed air pressure applied to the paint tank 9A is lowered (T3 to T4 in FIG. 3) and the paint pressure in the distributor 6A becomes constant. 15A is controlled simultaneously. At this time, the paint pressure in the distributor 6A is referred to by the distributor pressure detecting means 13A, and the pressure in the paint tank 9A is referred to by the pressure gauge 18A.

  By this operation, the supply to the coating machine 1 can be performed without fluctuation of the paint pressure in the paint pipe 5b in which the supply of the paint A is still continued.

  When the painting robot 20b connected to the paint pipe 5b finishes painting the paint A, the previous color paint A remaining in the paint pipe 5b is collected on the paint tank 9A side in the same procedure as described above (FIG. 3). T5-T6).

  Thus, the coating material supply apparatus of the present example can continue to supply the coating material while collecting the previous color coating material A remaining in the coating material pipes 5a to 5e.

  When the object to be coated with the next color paint B arrives at the painting position of the painting robot 20a, the inside of the paint tank 9B containing the paint B is pressurized by the compressed fluid supply means 15B (not shown) to apply the paint B to the paint pipe 16B. To start coating the next color paint B (from T7 in FIG. 3).

  The embodiment described above is described for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and is not described for limiting the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows embodiment of the coating material supply apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a top view which shows the coating booth using the coating material supply apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a timing chart for demonstrating operation | movement of the coating material supply apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the prior art example of the coating material supply apparatus using a pig. It is sectional drawing which shows the divider | distributor which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... Paint gun 2 ... Paint pump 3 ... CCV (color change valve unit)
31 ... Manifold 32a-32h ... Switching valve 4, 5, 16 ... Paint pipe 6 ... Distributor 61 ... Paint inlet 62a-62g ... Paint outlet 7 ... Pipe 8 ... Pressure control valve 9 ... Paint tank 10 ... Pig 11, 12, ... Pig station 13 ... Distributor pressure detection means 14 ... Pig moving means 15 ... Fluid pressure supply means 17 ... Control means

Claims (6)

A plurality of paint guns, a color change valve unit connected to each of the paint guns, a paint pump for sending paint sent from the color change valve unit to the paint gun, and a paint tank for containing paint in a sealed space; A distributor having compressed fluid supply means for supplying a compressed fluid into the paint tank, a paint inlet for introducing the paint in the paint tank, and a plurality of paint outlets opened in communication with the paint inlet; A paint pipe connecting each paint outlet of the distributor and each color change valve unit; a pig reciprocating in each paint pipe; and the pig from the color change valve unit side. In the paint supply device having a pig moving means for moving to the container side,
A distributor pressure detecting means for detecting a paint pressure in the distributor;
When moving the pig from the color change valve side to the distributor side by the pig moving means, the pig moving means so that the paint pressure in the distributor detected by the distributor pressure detecting means becomes constant. And a control means for controlling the compressed fluid supply means. Compressed fluid pressure detecting means for detecting a compressed fluid pressure in the paint tank, and the control means controls the compressed fluid supply means based on the compressed fluid pressure detected by the compressed fluid pressure detecting means. The paint supply apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The paint supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the pig moving means so as to move the pig at a pressure equal to or higher than the paint pressure detected by the distributor pressure detecting means. . A plurality of paint guns, a color change valve unit connected to each of the paint guns, a paint pump for sending paint sent from the color change valve unit to the paint gun, and a paint tank for containing paint in a sealed space; A distributor having compressed fluid supply means for supplying a compressed fluid into the paint tank, a paint inlet for introducing the paint in the paint tank, and a plurality of paint outlets opened in communication with the paint inlet; A paint pipe connecting each paint outlet of the distributor and each color change valve unit; a pig reciprocating in each paint pipe; and the pig from the color change valve unit side. In a paint supply method using a paint supply device having a pig moving means for moving to a container side,
A distributor pressure detecting step for detecting a paint pressure in the distributor;
When moving the pig from the color change valve side to the distributor side by the pig moving means, the pig moving means so that the paint pressure in the distributor detected by the distributor pressure detection step becomes constant. And a step of controlling the compressed fluid supply means. A compressed fluid pressure detecting step for detecting a compressed fluid pressure in the paint tank, wherein the control step controls the compressed fluid supply means based on the compressed fluid pressure detected in the compressed fluid pressure detecting step; The paint supply method according to claim 4. 6. The paint supply method according to claim 4, wherein the control step controls the pig moving means so as to move the pig at a pressure equal to or higher than the paint pressure detected by the distributor pressure detecting step. .

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