JP2009233543A - Coating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coating apparatus with a nozzle of a coating head capable of following a target position on a workpiece to be a work object with high accuracy. <P>SOLUTION: The coating apparatus 20 for coating a door panel 13 with a sealer 14 includes: the coating head 60; a robot 30 for moving the coating head 60 along the peripheral edge end 18 of the door panel 13; and a controller 100 for controlling the drive of the robot 30 and the adjusting motor 98. The coating head 60 comprises: a nozzle device 90 for discharging the sealer 14 from the distal end of the nozzle 92; a guide device 62 having a guide roller 68 to be laterally abutted to the peripheral edge end 18 of the door panel 13; an adjuster 70, provided between the nozzle device 90 and the guide device 62, for adjusting a distance b between both devices 90 and 62 by relatively moving both devices 90 and 62; and an adjusting motor 98 to be the drive source of the adjuster 70. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a coating apparatus.

  Conventionally, in the assembly process of a door panel of an automobile, a viscous material is applied to the door panel. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the door panel 3 is in a state in which the pressed outer panel 1 and inner panel 2 are overlapped, and the outer peripheral portion of the outer panel 1 is folded back over a certain width from this state. The door panel 3 is integrated by sandwiching the outer peripheral end of the inner panel 2. After the integration, a high-viscosity material called a sealer 4 is applied to the tip of the folded portion of the outer panel 1 to waterproof and rust-proof the joint portions of both panels.

  In order to reliably apply the sealer 4 along the mating portions of both panels, it is preferable to guide the nozzle device for applying the sealer 4 so as to move along the mating portions. Therefore, conventionally, a guide member is provided at a distance corresponding to the folding width with respect to the nozzle device, and the nozzle device is moved and operated while the guide member is in contact with the panel side surface of the outer panel 1. A line that enters the inside of the door panel by a certain distance from the peripheral edge (that is, the tip of the folded portion of the outer panel 1) is traced.

Moreover, the width | variety of the said folding | turning part may change with vehicle models, and the technique corresponding to it has already been proposed (patent document 1). According to this, an adjusting device having an adjusting nut is incorporated between the guide member and the nozzle device, and the nut is manually operated when the width of the folded portion changes with the change of the vehicle model to be worked on. Thus, the distance between the guide member and the nozzle device is adjusted.
JP 2007-283262 A

  However, the curvature of the door panel is not constant. For example, if a portion having a large curvature is to be folded back, the door panel is likely to be wrinkled. In such a place, it is necessary to set the width of the folded portion short, and even the single door panel can make the width of the folded portion long and short. On the other hand, the conventional device, although provided with the adjusting device itself, is a manual operation type, and thus it is difficult to cope with the above-described one in which the width of the folded portion is long or short.

  The present invention has been created in view of the above problems, and provides a coating apparatus capable of following a nozzle of a coating head with high accuracy at a target position on a workpiece to be worked. Objective.

  The present invention is an application device for applying a viscous material to a work, a nozzle device for discharging the viscous material from a nozzle tip, a guide device having a contact portion that contacts the peripheral edge of the work from the side, An application head comprising an adjustment device provided between a nozzle device and the guide device for adjusting the distance between the two devices by relatively moving both devices, and a motor serving as a drive source for the adjustment device. And a robot that moves the coating head along the peripheral edge of the workpiece, and a control device that controls driving of the robot and the motor.

The following configuration is preferable as an embodiment of the present invention.
A biasing device is provided between the coating head and the robot and biases the abutting portion of the guide device constituting the coating head so as to abut against the peripheral edge of the workpiece from the side. It becomes. If it does in this way, a biasing device will bias a guide device, and will contact a contact part to a peripheral edge of a work. Therefore, the relative positional relationship of the guide device, and consequently the coating head, with respect to the workpiece is always maintained, and the nozzle position on the workpiece can be stabilized.

  The adjusting device is a screw device that moves either one of the two devices relative to the other while converting the power of the motor into a linear motion by a screwing action of a screw and a nut. In this way, when the motor is driven to rotate the screw once, the movable nut 76 accurately advances by one lead of the screw. For this reason, it is possible to accurately adjust the distance between the nozzle device and the guide device, and it is possible to cause the nozzle to follow the target position on the workpiece with higher accuracy.

  According to the present invention, both the adjusting device that adjusts the distance between the nozzle device and the guide device and the robot are controlled by the control device, and by operating the adjusting device, the workpiece with respect to the workpiece peripheral edge is used as a reference. The position of the nozzle can be arbitrarily operated during the coating operation by the robot. From the above, it becomes possible to cause the nozzle to follow the target position on the workpiece with high accuracy.

<One Embodiment>
1. Overall Configuration An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Reference numeral 10 shown in FIG. 1 is a support base, and reference numeral 20 is a coating apparatus. The support base 10 supports the door panel 13 to be worked.

  The coating device 20 is installed, for example, in a vehicle door assembly manufacturing line, and applies a sealer 14 (corresponding to “viscous material” in the present invention), which is a high-viscosity material mainly composed of polyurethane, for example, to the door panel 13. The robot 30, the slide cylinder 40 (corresponding to the “biasing device” in the present invention), the coating head 60, and the like. Hereinafter, the specific configuration of each apparatus constituting the coating apparatus 20 will be described in order.

  The robot 30 includes a base portion 32, a turning body portion 34 that can turn in the circumferential direction with respect to the base portion 32, and an arm mechanism 36 provided on the turning body portion 34. It is an articulated robot. The arm mechanism 36 includes a first arm 37, a second arm 38, and an arm tip portion 39 provided at the tip thereof, and each arm can operate independently.

  In addition, a drive device including an arm drive motor 112 (shown only in FIG. 4) is incorporated in each of the base portion 32 and a joint portion for joining the arms together. Each of the arm drive motors 112 is a servo motor, and is provided with a position detection sensor (not shown) such as a rotary encoder, so that the rotation angle can be controlled with high accuracy. Thus, the arm center P can be moved to an arbitrary position within the operating range.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the slide cylinder 40 is attached below the arm tip 39 of the robot 30 and includes a fixed part 42 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape and a moving part 48 having a plate shape.

  A rail portion 46 is formed in the fixed portion 42 so as to extend in the left-right direction, and a piston (not shown) that is movable in the left-right direction is provided inside the fixed portion 42. The moving part 48 is attached to the piston. When the piston moves in the left-right direction, the moving part 48 moves in the left-right direction while being guided by the rail part 46. The fixed portion 42 is connected to an air pressure supply device (not shown) via an air supply pipe 44 and a pressure reducing valve (not shown), and the piston is urged to the right side by the air supplied from the air pressure supply device. It has a configuration.

  An application head 60 is fixed to the moving unit 48 via a support plate 64 described below. Accordingly, when air is supplied from the air pressure supply device, the moving unit 48 and the coating head 60 are biased to the right side with a constant biasing force F. In the present embodiment, the size of the stroke range of the moving unit 48 is set between 10 and 50 mm, for example.

  The coating head 60 shown in FIG. 2 includes a guide device 62, an adjustment device 70, a nozzle device 90, and an adjustment motor 98 (corresponding to “motor” in the present invention).

  The guide device 62 includes a support plate 64, a guide bar 66, and a guide roller 68. The support plate 64 is L-shaped in a side view, and a support portion 72 of an adjusting device 70 described later is attached to an extending portion 64A that extends to the right. The guide bar 66 extends downward from the lower portion of the support plate 64, and a guide roller 68 (corresponding to the “contact portion” of the present invention) is provided near the tip of the guide bar 66 via a bearing (not shown). The guide bar 66 is rotatably mounted about the axis.

  The adjusting device 70 is mainly composed of a support portion 72, a screw 74, a movable nut 76, and a slider 78. The support portion 72 has a box shape that is long in the left-right direction, and both upper and lower walls form a pair of rails 72A extending in the left-right direction. A slider 78 having a rectangular parallelepiped shape is attached to both rails 72A so as to be movable in the left-right direction.

  A screw 74 is disposed between the rails 72A in the left-right direction, that is, in parallel with the rails 72A. The left end of the screw 74 is connected to the left wall 72B of the support portion 72, and the right end is connected to the adjusting motor via a shaft coupling (not shown). It is mounted coaxially with 98 drive shafts so as to be rotatable. A movable nut 76 (corresponding to a “nut” in the present invention) is screwed to the screw 74, and the movable nut 76 is fixed to the slider 78 described above. Further, the mounting direction of the screw 74 and the mounting direction of the slide cylinder 40 described above are parallel, and the moving directions of the slider 78 and the moving unit 48 are also parallel.

  The nozzle device 90 includes a substantially cylindrical nozzle 92 and a valve 96 connected to a sealer supply device (not shown) through a sealer supply pipe 94. The nozzle 92 is fixed to the slider 78 through the valve 96 so that the tip thereof faces downward, and is parallel to the guide bar 66. The tip of the nozzle 92 has a flat shape and is disposed at substantially the same height as the upper portion of the guide roller 68 described above.

  The adjustment motor 98 is a drive source of the adjustment device 70, and for example, a servo motor is used. This servo motor is provided with a position detection sensor (not shown) such as a rotary encoder, and can control the amount of rotation of the drive shaft.

  When the adjustment motor 98 is driven, the rotational power of the screw 74 is converted into the linear power (the left-right direction shown in FIG. 2) of the movable nut 76 by the screwing action of the screw 74 and the movable nut 76. For this reason, the movable nut 76 and thus the nozzle 92 can be moved in the horizontal direction with respect to the guide device 62 along both rails 72A (corresponding to “relative movement relative to others” in the present invention), and the nozzle device 90 More specifically, the distance b between the guide roller 62 and the guide roller 68 and the nozzle center 92A can be adjusted ((a) in FIG. 3 and (b) in FIG. 3). In FIG. 3, some parts such as a supply pipe are omitted.

2. Electrical Configuration FIG. 4 shows a control device 100 that controls the coating apparatus 20 of the present embodiment, and a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of each device. The control device 100 includes an arithmetic processing unit 102, a program storage unit 104, a RAM 106, a valve control unit 108, and a motor control unit 110.

  The program storage unit 104 stores an operation program for controlling the coating apparatus 20. This operation program is generated based on the shape data of the door panel 13 (the shape of the peripheral edge 18 and the folded width a described later).

  The RAM 106 serves as a work area when the arithmetic processing unit 102 performs various operations. When the coating apparatus 20 is controlled, an operation program is loaded on a predetermined area of the RAM 106 and executed by the arithmetic processing unit 102. .

  The motor control unit 110 is electrically connected to each arm drive motor 112 and the adjustment motor 98. The valve control unit 108 is electrically connected to the valve 96 and opens and closes the valve 96 in response to a command from the arithmetic processing unit 102.

  From the above configuration, the arm drive motor 112 and the adjustment motor 98 are controlled in combination by the cooperation of the arithmetic processing unit 102 and the motor control unit 110. Specifically, each arm drive motor 112 is controlled so as to move the arm center P along the shape of the peripheral edge 18 of the door panel 13, and the adjustment motor 98 is driven according to the length of the folding width a. .

3. The door panel 13 which becomes a workpiece | work of the workpiece | work coating device 20 is shown in FIG. In this door panel 13, after the outer panel 11 and the inner panel 12 are overlapped in the preceding process, the outer peripheral portion of the outer panel 11 is folded back to the inside of the door panel by a predetermined width (hereinafter referred to as a folding width a) as shown in FIG. On the other hand, the door panel 13 is integrated by sandwiching the outer peripheral end of the inner panel 12 (the outer panel 11 before being folded back is indicated by a two-dot chain line).

  As shown in FIG. 7, due to design restrictions and the like, the peripheral edge 18 of the door panel 13 has a portion (curvature center O) that curves toward the inside of the door panel. In such a portion, the line length of the outer panel tip 16 (HH line in FIG. 7) after folding is shorter than the line length of the outer panel tip 16 (GG line indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 7) before folding. Therefore, wrinkles are easily generated because a force for contracting the folded portion in the circumferential direction is generated. As the folded width a is larger, wrinkles are more likely to occur. Therefore, the folded width a is reduced to prevent wrinkles by moving the outer panel tip 16 before folding back toward the inside of the door panel.

4). Positional relationship of the coating head 60 with respect to the door panel 13 In the coating device 20 of the present embodiment, the nozzle 92 is located just above the outer panel tip 16 while the nozzle tip from which the sealer 14 is discharged is directed downward as shown in FIG. The application head 60 is set on the door panel 13 so as to be positioned. Specifically, the adjustment device 70 sets the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92 </ b> A to the same width as the folding width a of the door panel 13, and moves the arm center P of the robot 30 to the door panel 13. What is necessary is just to match | combine with the position which entered the door panel inner side (right side of FIG. 2) only the predetermined distance c from the peripheral edge 18.

  When this is done, the entire application head 60 including the guide device 62 is biased to the inside of the door panel (the right side shown in FIG. 2) by the action of the slide cylinder 40, and the guide roller 68 is moved to the peripheral edge 18 of the door panel 13. As a result, the nozzle center 92 </ b> A whose distance from the guide roller 68 is equal to the turn-back width “a” is positioned just above the outer panel tip 16.

  The guide device 62 positions the nozzle 92 of the coating head 60 at a predetermined distance from the peripheral edge 18 with respect to the door panel 13. The adjusting device 70 has a function of adjusting the distance b from the guide roller 68 of the guide device 62 to the nozzle center 92A corresponding to the folding width a of the door panel 13, and includes the arithmetic processing unit 102 and the motor control unit 110. Under the control, the distance b is automatically adjusted according to the length of the folding width a during the sealer coating operation described below. In addition, the adjustable range of the distance b is set to be larger than the range that the folding width a can take, and in this embodiment, the adjustable range is set to, for example, 3 to 20 mm.

5. Sealer application operation Next, the sealer application operation by the application apparatus 20 will be described. Here, the door panel 13 to be worked is set on the support base 10 with the inner panel 12 side facing up, and the coating head 60 is located at the start point shown in FIG. The following description will be given assuming that the nozzle center 92A is set with the positional relationship shown in (the positional relationship where the nozzle center 92A is positioned directly above the outer panel tip 16). At this time, the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A is, of course, equal to the folded width a0 of the outer panel 11 at the start point.

  When the coating operation is started, the valve 96 is first opened, and the sealer 14 is discharged from the tip of the nozzle 92. At the same time, the operation of moving the arm tip 39 of the robot 30 by the control device 100 is started. The coating head 60 moves so that the arm center P follows the moving line 19 shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 8 (the line entering the door panel inside (lower side in FIG. 8) by a predetermined distance c from the peripheral edge 18). I will do it.

  At this time, as a result of the guide roller 68 rolling while being in contact with the peripheral edge 18 of the door panel 13, the nozzle 92 of the coating head 60 is guided by the guide device 62 and is separated from the peripheral edge 18 of the door panel 13. That is, it moves at b, that is, directly above the outer panel tip 16.

  After the movement starts, the coating head 60 performs the coating operation in the section A shown in FIG. 8. In this section A, the folding width a of the outer panel 11 is constant (a0 shown in FIG. 8). Is not operated, and the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A is kept constant. From the above, while moving in the section A, the nozzle 92 applies the sealer 14 to the outer panel tip 16 while moving just above the outer panel tip 16.

  Now, in the next section B following the section A, the turn-back width a gradually becomes shorter with respect to the moving direction. Therefore, when the coating head 60 moves to the end of the section A, at this time, the control device 100 energizes the adjustment motor 98 and operates the adjustment device 70 in parallel with the movement operation of the arm tip 39 of the robot 30. Operate. As a result, simultaneously with the movement of the coating head 60, the screw 74 of the adjusting device 70 rotates around the axis and moves the movable nut 76, and thus the slider 78, in a straight line. As a result, the distance from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A. b is adjusted to be short. From the above, while moving in the section B, the nozzle 92 applies the sealer 14 to the outer panel tip 16 while moving just above the outer panel tip 16.

  When the coating head 60 moves to the end of the section B, at that time, the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A is set so as to coincide with the folding width a1 of the section C (set by the operation program). Then, the adjusting device 70 temporarily stops driving.

  Then, since the section C following the section B has a constant turn-back width (a1), the adjusting device 70 is not operated as in the section A, and the nozzle 92 moves just above the outer panel tip 16, The sealer 14 is applied to the outer panel tip 16.

  When the coating head 60 moves to the end of the section C, the turn-back width a gradually increases with respect to the moving direction in the next section D. Therefore, the adjustment device 70 is activated to adjust the distance b longer. Be started. Then, as in the section B, the control device 100 operates the adjustment device 70 in parallel with the movement operation of the arm tip 39 of the robot 30. Thereby, the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A is adjusted to be long simultaneously with the movement of the coating head 60. Thus, in the section D, as in the sections A to C, the nozzle 92 applies the sealer 14 to the outer panel tip 16 while moving just above the outer panel tip 16.

  Thereafter, as described above, while the distance b from the guide roller 68 to the nozzle center 92A is automatically adjusted to correspond to the length of the turnback width a, the application of the sealer 14 to the outer panel tip 16 is advanced, and the circumference of FIG. When returning to the start point, the coating operation is finished and the valve 96 is closed. Thus, as shown in FIG. 9, the sealer 14 is applied over the entire circumference of the outer panel tip 16, and the mating portion between the outer panel 11 and the inner panel 12 is sealed.

<Effect>
In the present embodiment, the control device 100 can control the robot 30 and the adjustment device 70 in a composite manner. As a result, the distance b between the guide roller 68 and the nozzle center 92A is arbitrarily adjusted during the coating operation. it can. Therefore, the sealer 14 can be applied without difficulty along the outer panel front end 16 even in the door panel 13 having a long and short folding width a. Further, the width of the sealer 14 to be applied to the door panel 13 is only a few millimeters (minimum necessary) width enough to fill the mating portion of the outer panel 11 and the inner panel 12, and is used for one application operation. The application amount of the sealer 14 can be reduced.

  In the present embodiment, the adjusting device 70 is a screw device that converts the power of the adjusting motor 98 into a linear motion by the screwing action of the screw 74 and the movable nut 76. In this way, when the screw 74 is rotated once, the movable nut 76 accurately advances by one lead of the screw 74, so that the position of the nozzle 92 can be adjusted with high accuracy.

  Further, in the present embodiment, since the slide cylinder 40 is provided, as will be described below, even if the arm center P is removed from the moving line 19 that is the movement target in the course of the application operation, the application is performed. As a result of maintaining the relative positional relationship of the head 60 with respect to the outer panel 11, the coating head 60 remains just above the outer panel tip 16, and the sealer 14 can be reliably applied to the outer panel tip 16.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, the arm center P shifts from a position P0 on the movement line shown in (a) to a left position P1 shown in (b) (deviation amount d). Then, at that time, the fixing portion 42 of the slide cylinder 40 moves to the left side shown in FIG. However, since the moving part 48 always receives the urging force F in the right direction shown in FIG. 10 from the slide cylinder 40, the guide roller 68 is kept in contact with the peripheral edge 18, and the coating head 60 is It stays right above the outer panel tip 16. Similarly, when the arm center P is displaced at a position P2 on the opposite side (right direction in FIG. 11), the coating head 60 remains just above the outer panel tip 16 (see FIG. 11). 10 and 11, some parts such as the supply pipe are omitted.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  (1) In the above embodiment, the guide device 62 is attached to the slide cylinder 40 and the nozzle device 90 is moved relative to the guide device 62. However, the configuration is reversed, and the nozzle device 90 is attached to the slide cylinder 40. The guide device 62 may be moved with respect to the attachment and nozzle device 90.

  (2) In the above embodiment, the slide cylinder 40 driven by air pressure is exemplified as the biasing device. However, for example, a spring may be used instead.

  (3) In the above embodiment, the rotational motion of the adjustment motor 98 is converted into a linear motion using the screw 74 and the movable nut 76 as the adjustment device 70. For example, the rotational motion of the adjustment motor 98 is converted using a pinion and a rack. You may convert into a linear motion.

  (4) In the above embodiment, an articulated robot is exemplified as the robot 30 that moves the coating head 60. However, for example, the coating head 60 may be moved by a cylindrical coordinate robot.

Diagram showing the overall configuration of the coating device Diagram showing application head Diagram showing nozzle movement relative to guide roller Block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the coating device Figure showing a door panel An enlarged perspective view of the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the door panel An enlarged plan view of the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the door panel Diagram showing distance adjustment between guide roller and nozzle Diagram showing door panel with sealer applied Figure where arm tip position has moved outside door panel Figure of arm tip position moved to the inside of the door panel A perspective view showing a door panel to which a sealer is applied

Explanation of symbols

13 ... Door panel (corresponding to "work" of the present invention)
14 ... Sealer (equivalent to "viscous material" of the present invention)
18 ... peripheral edge 20 ... coating device 30 ... robot 40 ... slide cylinder (corresponding to "biasing device" of the present invention)
60 ... coating head 62 ... guide device 68 ... guide roller (corresponding to "contact portion" of the present invention)
70 ... adjusting device 74 ... screw 76 ... movable nut (corresponding to "nut" of the present invention)
90 ... Nozzle device 92 ... Nozzle 98 ... Adjustment motor (corresponding to "motor" of the present invention)
100: Control device b: Distance from guide roller 68 to nozzle center 92A (corresponding to “distance between both devices” of the present invention)

Claims (3)

An application device for applying a viscous material to a workpiece,
A nozzle device that discharges viscous material from the tip of the nozzle, a guide device having a contact portion that contacts the peripheral edge of the workpiece from the side, and a relative movement of both devices provided between the nozzle device and the guide device An adjustment device that adjusts the distance between the two devices, and a motor that is a drive source of the adjustment device, and a coating head comprising:
A robot that moves the coating head along a peripheral edge of the workpiece;
And a controller for controlling driving of the robot and the motor. Provided between the coating head and the robot, and a biasing device that biases the abutting portion of the guide device constituting the coating head so as to abut against the peripheral edge of the workpiece from the side. The coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein The adjusting device is a screw device that moves one of the two devices relative to the other while converting the power of the motor into a linear motion by a screwing action of a screw and a nut. The coating apparatus of Claim 1 or Claim 2.

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