JP2008200781A - Assembly system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an assembly system which carries out automatic assembly without increasing assembly hours and assembly costs even if a small amount of products of various types are assembled in a cell production system. <P>SOLUTION: In the assembly system, if an existing pallet does not exist immediately after obtaining production information, a pallet 1 is machined by a milling machine 2 to prepare a necessary pallet, and an automatic assembly device 6 carries out the automatic assembly. Thus the pallets can be automatically assembled in the cell production system without preparation of all types of the pallets 1 conforming to products to be produced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an assembly system for assembling a product such as a portable device, in particular, a high-mix low-volume product by cell production.

  For example, products such as portable devices are produced in small quantities due to functional differentiation. In addition, since the product cycle is relatively short, changes in production parts and changes in assembly state are performed in a short period of time. For such products, a production method called a cell production method in which one worker assembles parts and assembles the product is often adopted. When assembling products using the cell production method, it is easy to cope with changes in production plans and the like, and it is a production method suitable for high-mix, low-volume production.

  In the cell production method, a worker assembles a product by assembling a large number of parts, and thus there is a possibility that production time and product accuracy may vary depending on the skill level of the worker. For this reason, in the cell production system, an assembly system that can reduce individual differences in the proficiency level of workers and reduce mistakes in selecting parts and assembly order by workers has been proposed ( For example, see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 below).

  Conventionally, in the cell production system, various proposals have been made to reduce so-called human errors on the premise of assembly by workers. However, it is inevitable that the work of assembling parts will vary depending on the level of proficiency of the workers. Was the current situation.

  In order to eliminate the influence of individual differences among workers, it is conceivable to assemble parts using an automatic assembling apparatus. However, when carrying out automatic assembly, it is necessary to carry out a process such as transporting a plurality of parts held in a predetermined posture. For a wide variety of products, a pallet for holding parts is provided for each product. It is necessary to prepare in advance. For this reason, it takes a lot of time to prepare from the production plan to the actual product assembly, and many management costs are also required, such as storing many pallets in relation to the product production plan. Become.

  Therefore, in the production of equipment in which a large variety of products are produced in small quantities, the actual situation is that human error is reduced as much as possible by using a cell production system by workers.

JP 2001-242928 A JP 2004-30605 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and provides an assembly system capable of performing automatic assembly without increasing time and cost even when a high-mix low-volume product is assembled by a cell production method. With the goal.

  In order to achieve the above object, an assembly system of the present invention according to claim 1 includes a pallet manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a pallet in which a plurality of components are held in a predetermined state, and a component held on the pallet as desired. Automatic assembly equipment to be assembled as a product, parts information, information on assembly order / attitude of parts, product information, information on the automatic assembly equipment is stored, and when production information about the product is input, the pallet And a control device for preparing the pallet by outputting the manufacturing command to the pallet manufacturing device, holding the component in a predetermined state with respect to the pallet prepared by the command of the control device, and holding the component on the pallet Is assembled by the automatic assembling apparatus to obtain a desired product.

  In the present invention according to claim 1, when production information about a product is input, a pallet is produced by a pallet production apparatus as necessary, so that it is possible to save the trouble of preparing a pallet according to the number of products in advance. Even in the case of assembling a wide variety of small-quantity products by the cell production method, the assembly system can be automatically assembled without increasing time and cost.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the assembly system according to the first aspect, information of an existing pallet is stored in the control device, and the control device inputs production information to the control device. In this case, the presence or absence of a pallet that can be used is determined, and when there is no pallet that can be used, a pallet production command for holding a part corresponding to the product is output to the pallet production apparatus.

  In the present invention according to claim 2, when it is determined that the existing pallet can be used when the production information regarding the product is input, the pallet can be omitted and the automatic assembly can be performed.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the assembly system according to the first or second aspect, wherein a plurality of the automatic assembly apparatuses correspond to one pallet manufacturing apparatus. To do.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, an assembly system using a plurality of automatic assembly apparatuses can be provided, and it is possible to easily cope with mixed assembly.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the assembly system according to any one of the first to third aspects, a plurality of parts are held by a worker on the prepared pallet, and the automatic assembly is performed. The apparatus is characterized in that it is assembled into a desired product according to a command from the control apparatus.

  In this invention which concerns on Claim 4, a worker can assemble a desired product with an automatic assembly apparatus by setting a some component on a pallet.

  The assembly system of the present invention can be an assembly system capable of performing automatic assembly without increasing time and cost even when a variety of small-quantity products are assembled by the cell production method.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an assembly system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 shows the appearance of an example of a part, FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the pallet, and FIG. 4 shows the pallet holding the part. FIG. 5 shows a schematic flowchart of the assembly process.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the assembly system according to the present embodiment includes a milling machine 2 as a pallet manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a pallet 1 in which a plurality of parts are held in a predetermined state. The desired pallet 1 is produced by processing. Moreover, the automatic assembly apparatus 6 which assembles the components 4 and 5 (refer FIG. 2) hold | maintained at the pallet 1 as a desired product is provided. The components 4 and 5 (see FIG. 2) are stored in a component storage box 7, and the component storage box 7 is provided with a display lamp 8 that serves as an index for an operator to take out a desired component.

  The control device 11 includes information on the parts 4 and 5 (shape dimensions, interrelationships, etc.), information on the assembly order and orientation of the parts, product information (such as the number of assemblies), and information on the automatic assembly device 6 (chuck type / (Specifications such as arrangement) and information of existing pallets (part holding dimensions, types, number, etc.) are stored, and production information about the product is input to the control device 11 by the worker when starting production. When production information related to the product is input to the control device 11, the presence or absence of an existing pallet is determined, and a pallet production command is output to the milling machine 2 as necessary. Further, a lighting command is output from the control device 11 to the display lamp 8 of the component storage box 7, and the order of taking out the components is displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the component 4 is a cube-shaped component having a different level, and the component 5 is a pin-shaped component that is inserted into the insertion hole of the component 4. Etc. are decided. The product is a product having a shape in which the pin portion of the component 5 is inserted into the insertion hole of the component 4 and the head of the component 5 protrudes from the surface of the cube-shaped component 4. For this reason, when automatic assembly is performed by the automatic assembly device 6, the component 4 and the component 5 are held at predetermined positions with respect to the pallet 1, and the component 4 is held so that it can be handled with the insertion hole on the upper surface. At the same time, the component 5 is held in a protruding state so that the head can be handled.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the pallet 1 is formed with a holding hole 12 in which a stepped portion of a cube-shaped component 4 having a different step is inserted and held. Further, the pallet 1 is formed with a holding hole 13 in which the pin portion is inserted and held in a state where the head of the component 5 protrudes from the surface. With respect to the pallet 1 in the state shown in FIG. 3, the worker takes out the parts 4 and 5 from the part where the display lamp 8 of the parts storage box 7 is lit and holds them in the holding holes 12 and 13 of the pallet 1 (see FIG. 4). Status).

  By taking out the parts 4 and 5 according to the lighting instruction of the display lamp 8, the worker can hold the parts 4 and 5 accurately on the pallet 1 in a predetermined mounting posture.

  The shape of the pallet 1 and the shapes of the holding holes 12 and 13 of the parts 4 and 5 are merely examples for convenience of explanation, and the shape, number, position, etc. of the insertion holes are numerically controlled according to the actual product. The milling machine 2 processes the various products according to the parts. In addition, the shape of the parts 4 and 5 and the order of assembling the parts 4 and 5 are shown as an example for convenience of explanation, and the number, shape, and the like are stored in the control device 11 for each of various products.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example is shown in which one automatic assembly device 6 corresponds to one milling machine 2, but a plurality of automatic assembly devices 6 are provided to one milling machine 2. It is also possible to make it correspond. By associating a plurality of automatic assembly apparatuses 6, a plurality of products can be mixed and assembled.

  The operation of product assembly by the assembly system described above will be described.

  The control device 11 includes component information such as the shapes and relationships of the components 4 and 5, information on the assembly order and orientation of the components, product information, component placement information in the component storage box 7, and specifications of the automatic assembly device 6. Information on production, such as information on the capacity and capacity, information on the presence or absence of an existing pallet produced when processing another product, and the like are stored.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when production information of a product to be assembled is input by a worker or a production management system such as a higher-level production management computer, information on parts is read based on the product produced in step S1. . That is, the parts used according to the product, the assembly order of the parts, the posture of the parts at the time of assembly, and the like are read out. Based on the read information, it is determined in step S2 whether or not there is a pallet that can be used for assembly. If it is determined that there is a pallet, that is, it is determined No because of no pallet. In step S3, a command for preparing an existing pallet is output. For example, when the pallet 1 shown in FIG. 3 already exists, a command for preparing the existing pallet 1 is output.

  If it is determined in step S2 that there is no pallet that can be used for assembly (Yes), a command for producing the pallet is output to the milling machine 2 (see FIG. 1) in step S4. When a pallet manufacturing command is output, the automatic assembly apparatus 6 (see FIG. 1) performs cutting of the component holding shape suitable for the shape, number, and orientation of the parts to be used for the workpiece 3 (see FIG. 1). To be implemented. For example, the pallet 1 shown in FIG. 3 is prepared and prepared immediately after production information is input.

  After the existing pallet 1 (see FIGS. 1 and 3) or the processed pallet 1 (see FIGS. 1 and 3) is prepared, the parts are held in step S5. That is, after the pallet 1 (see FIG. 1 and FIG. 3) is prepared, the indicator lamp of the parts storage box 7 (see FIG. 1) of the part in which necessary parts are stored according to the command of the control device 11 (see FIG. 1). 8 (see FIG. 1) is lit, and the operator takes out the parts 4 and 5 (see FIG. 2) from the part where the display lamp 8 (see FIG. 1) is lit, and the pallet 1 (see FIGS. 1 and 3). Are held in the holding holes 12 and 13 (see FIG. 3) (state of FIG. 4).

  After the holding of the parts is completed by the worker, automatic assembly of the product is performed by the automatic assembly apparatus 6 (see FIG. 1) in step S6. By automatically assembling the product, there is no variation in assembly accuracy due to individual differences such as the skill level of the operator.

  When the product to be assembled is changed, the above operation is repeated, and if there is an existing pallet according to the product, the existing pallet is used. If there is no existing pallet, control is performed immediately after production information is input. The milling machine 2 produces a desired pallet according to the pallet production command of the apparatus 11, and the parts are automatically assembled by the automatic assembling apparatus 6 (see FIG. 1) after holding the parts on the pallet by an operator.

  By using the assembly system described above, the pallet is prepared immediately after the production information is given and automatic assembly is performed. Therefore, the cell production method is used automatically without preparing all the pallets according to the product to be produced. Assembly can be performed.

  Accordingly, it is possible to assemble parts using an automatic assembly device in a state where the influence of individual differences among workers is eliminated, and a pallet for holding parts for a wide variety of products is provided for each product. There is no need to prepare in advance. For this reason, the preparation time can be greatly shortened and the management cost can be greatly reduced, and automatic assembly by the cell production method can be realized even in the case of multi-product / small-volume production. As a result, an assembly system that can perform automatic assembly without increasing time and cost even when a variety of small-quantity products are assembled by the cell production method.

  The present invention can be used, for example, in the industrial field of assembly systems for assembling products such as portable devices, in particular, high-mix low-volume products by cell production.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of an assembly system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is an external view showing an example of components. It is an external view of a pallet. It is an external view of the pallet in the state holding components. It is a schematic flowchart of an assembly process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pallet 2 Milling machine 3 Workpiece 4, 5 Parts 6 Automatic assembly apparatus 7 Parts storage box 8 Indicator lamp 11 Controller 12, 13

Claims (4)

A pallet manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a pallet in which a plurality of parts are held in a predetermined state;
An automatic assembling apparatus for assembling the parts held on the pallet as a desired product;
Information on parts, information on assembly order / attitude of parts, product information, information on the automatic assembly device is stored, and when production information about the product is input, a pallet production command is issued as necessary. A control device that outputs to the device and prepares the pallet;
An assembly system, wherein parts are held in a predetermined state with respect to a pallet prepared by a command from the control device, and the parts held on the pallet are assembled by the automatic assembling apparatus to obtain a desired product. Information on existing pallets is stored in the control device,
The control device judges whether or not there is a pallet that can be used when production information is input to the control device, and if there is no pallet that can be used, a pallet production command for holding a part corresponding to a product The assembly system according to claim 1, wherein the assembly system outputs to a manufacturing apparatus. The assembly system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the automatic assembly apparatuses correspond to one pallet manufacturing apparatus. The prepared pallet holds multiple parts by workers,
The assembly system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the automatic assembly apparatus assembles a desired product according to a command from the control apparatus.

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