JP2017196635A - Marking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a marking device capable of clearly marking on a steel wire having a thin wire diameter.SOLUTION: A marking device 10 includes: a carrying conveyer 12 on which plural pairs of right and left holding blocks 27 and 26 holding a steel wire W are arranged in parallel in a carrying direction; a laser head 14 arranged on a downstream side in the carrying direction of the carrying conveyer 12 and above the steel wire W; and a control portion 16 which carries out the operation control of the carrying conveyer 12 and the laser head 14. A laser beam is irradiated on a surface of the steel wire W while being held by the one pair of the holding blocks 27 and 26, thereby marking on that.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a marking device, and more particularly, to a marking device for marking a surface of a steel wire rod for identification.

  For example, as described in Patent Document 1 below, a method of stamping the surface of a workpiece with an indenter in which a letter or the like is formed on the tip surface when a plate-like workpiece is marked for identification Is generally used. When applying such an indenter type marking to a steel wire with a circular cross section, the steel wire is clamped immovably from both sides in the vicinity of the work surface in advance, and the indenter is processed with a predetermined pressure. Press against the outer peripheral surface.

However, when using the indenter type marking method as described above, the steel wire will move to the left and right in the direction of the downward punching force unless the steel wire is securely pressed by the clamp member. As a result, there is a problem that clear printing cannot be obtained.
In particular, when the wire diameter of the steel wire is reduced, the rigidity of the wire itself is weakened, and thus the above-described problems are likely to occur.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-1000052

  The present invention has been made for the purpose of providing a marking device capable of performing clear marking even on a steel wire having a thin wire diameter, against the background described above.

  Thus, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transport conveyor in which a plurality of left and right holding blocks for holding the steel wire material are arranged in parallel in the transport direction, on the downstream side of the transport direction of the transport conveyor, and A laser irradiation unit disposed above, and a control unit that controls the operation of the conveyor and the laser irradiation unit, and applies laser light to the surface of the steel wire held by the pair of holding blocks. It is configured to perform irradiation and perform marking.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the laser irradiation unit includes a focal length adjustment unit that adjusts a focal length of the laser beam, and the control unit includes information on a diameter of the steel wire to be marked. And a focal length deriving unit for deriving a focal length of the laser beam, and operating the focal length adjusting unit based on a deriving result of the focal length deriving unit to automatically adjust the focal length of the laser beam. It is comprised by these.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the control unit according to the second aspect of the present invention is configured so that the wire diameter information and the marking content are obtained from an external beta base in which the wire diameter information and marking content information of the steel wire to be marked are registered. It is characterized by comprising information acquisition means for acquiring the above information.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, the conveyance conveyor includes a first workpiece detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the steel wire rod in the holding block at a laser irradiation position, and the laser. A second work detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the steel wire rod in the holding block at the preliminary detection position set upstream of the irradiation position, and the control unit is configured to detect the laser irradiation position. Compare the steel wire material presence / absence information of the first workpiece detection sensor with the steel wire material presence / absence information of the second workpiece detection sensor acquired in advance at the preliminary detection position for the holding block in FIG. An abnormality determination means for determining that there is no abnormality is provided.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects, the holding block is formed with a V-shaped groove whose upper surface is opened, and the V-shaped groove gradually increases in depth toward the center of the conveyor. It is formed so as to be deep.

As described above, the present invention includes a conveyor having a plurality of left and right holding blocks for holding a steel wire arranged side by side in the conveying direction, and downstream of the conveying conveyor in the conveying direction and above the steel wire. And a laser irradiation unit that is configured to perform marking by irradiating the surface of the steel wire held by a pair of holding blocks with a laser beam.
According to the present invention, the surface of the steel wire is spot-dissolved by the laser beam to perform marking, so that it is possible to perform printing with substantially no load on the steel wire. For this reason, there is no problem that the steel wire escapes in the left-right direction due to the downward punching force at the time of marking, and clear marking can be applied even to a steel wire with a small wire diameter. Moreover, since it is not necessary to fix the position of the steel wire with a strong force, marking can be performed with the steel wire remaining on the holding block for conveyance. In this case, the operation of transferring the steel wire from the holding block for conveyance to the clamp member for fixing the position before and after the marking operation becomes unnecessary, and the trouble of dropping at the time of transfer can be solved.

However, in the case of laser marking, if the wire diameter of the steel wire to be processed is different, the surface position of the steel wire to be marked is deviated from the focus of the laser beam, and the printed line width becomes thicker or spotted. There arises a problem that energy necessary for melting is not supplied to the surface of the steel wire and printing is not performed.
On the other hand, in the present invention, a focal length deriving unit for deriving the focal length of the laser beam suitable for marking is provided based on the wire diameter information of the steel wire to be marked, and the laser irradiation unit The focal length adjusting means provided in the above is actuated to automatically adjust the focal length of the laser beam (claim 2). By doing in this way, even if it is a case where the steel wire from which a wire diameter differs is mixed, marking can be performed by changing the focal distance of a laser beam for every steel wire.

In this case, an information acquisition means for acquiring the wire diameter information of the steel wire to be marked and the marking content information from an external beta base can be provided in the control unit (claim 3).
When marking steel wires that are manufactured sequentially in the previous process in that order, the operator can obtain the diameter information and marking information from the host computer database that manages the previous process in the order of manufacture. However, the work of inputting the wire diameter information and the marking content information to the marking device can be made unnecessary, so that the workability can be improved and the quality trouble due to the input mistake can be prevented.

  Further, in the present invention, the first workpiece detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the steel wire in the holding block at the laser irradiation position, and the presence or absence of the steel wire in the holding block at the preliminary detection position upstream of the laser irradiation position is detected. The second workpiece detection sensor is provided on the conveyor, and the steel wire rod presence / absence information of the first workpiece detection sensor and the preliminary detection position are obtained in advance for the holding block currently at the laser irradiation position. An abnormality determination means that compares the steel wire rod presence / absence information of the second workpiece detection sensor and determines that the case where they do not coincide with each other as an abnormality can be provided in the control unit (claim 4). By doing this, if there is a possibility of workpiece non-detection (determined that there are no workpieces) or false detection (determined that there should be no workpieces) for the holding block at the laser irradiation position, The marking operation can be stopped to prevent quality troubles.

  In the present invention, a V-shaped groove whose upper surface is open can be formed in the holding block that holds the steel wire. Furthermore, the V-shaped groove can be formed so that the groove depth gradually becomes deeper toward the center in the left-right direction of the conveyor (Claim 5). For example, when the steel wire to be marked is an end portion of a coil product manufactured by winding in a coil shape, the steel wire is bent in an arc shape. In such a case, if the V-shaped groove depth of the holding block that holds the end portion of the steel wire is formed so that the groove depth gradually becomes deeper toward the center of the conveyor, the steel wire is projected downward. It can be held well in the state.

It is the figure which showed the steel wire material marked using the marking apparatus of this invention. It is the figure which showed the whole structure of the marking apparatus which is one Embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the holding block in the laser irradiation position in the marking apparatus of FIG. 2 with the laser head. It is the figure which showed one side of the holding block of FIG. 3 in the single-piece | unit state. It is the figure which showed the structure of the laser head of the embodiment. It is a block diagram of a control system of the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing about an abnormality determination means.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a steel wire W marked by the marking device in the present embodiment. This steel wire W is a wire having a circular cross section that is approximately 300 mm long and curves with a predetermined radius of curvature r. There are various wire diameters in the range of 5.5 mm to 48 mm. This steel wire W is obtained by cutting an end portion of a wire coil product manufactured by winding a hot rolled wire into a coil shape, and includes an appearance inspection, a spark inspection, a color inspection, and the like. Used for.
Since the steel wire W is handled in a state of being separated from the main body of the coil product, immediately after being separated, marking made of numbers and alphabet letters is applied for identification.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of the marking device 10 for marking the steel wire W. As shown in FIG. In the same figure, 12 is a transport conveyor that transports the steel wire W in the right direction while holding the steel wire W, 14 is a laser head as a laser irradiation unit, and 16 is a control unit that controls the operations of the transport conveyor 12 and the laser head 14. It is.

  The conveyor 12 includes a drive motor 17 (FIG. 6), a pair of drive gears 18 connected to the drive motor 17, a pair of driven gears 20 disposed on the opposite side of the drive direction from the drive gear 18, and a drive gear 18. A pair of conveying chains 22 disposed between the driven gear 20 and the driven gear 20 are provided. Then, the rotation of the drive motor 17 connected to the drive gear 18 causes the conveyance chain 22 to rotate in the clockwise direction in the figure, and the conveyance surface 22a on the upper side of the conveyance chain 22 having a horizontally long oval shape in FIG. It can be moved in the direction.

As shown in FIG. 3, a support plate 24 is provided between the pair of transport chains 22. The support plate 24 has a rectangular longitudinal shape, and each end in the longitudinal direction is fixed to each of the pair of transport chains 22 and moves together with the transport chains 22. A pair of symmetrical holding blocks 26 and 27 are attached to the upper surface of the support plate 24 near the ends in the left-right direction.
As shown in FIG. 2, a large number of the pair of holding blocks 26 and 27 are arranged side by side at a constant interval P in the transport direction.

  FIG. 4 is a view independently showing the holding block 26 attached to the left side of the support plate 24 in FIG. The holding block 26 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and a V-shaped groove 30 opened at the upper surface 26c is formed from the laterally outer side wall 26a when attached to the support plate 24 to the central side wall 26b. Yes. The steel wire W accommodated in the V-shaped groove 30 through the opening on the upper surface is held in position by the outer peripheral surface on the lower side coming into contact with the inclined surfaces 30a and 30b of the V-shaped groove 30 as indicated by a two-dot chain line. .

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4D, the V-shaped groove 30 has a progressively deeper groove depth from the side wall 26a toward the side wall 26b, that is, in the attached state, toward the center portion of the conveyor 12. It is formed to become.

  Although the detailed description is omitted, the other holding block 27 has a symmetrical shape with the holding block 26, and as shown in FIG. 3, the V-shaped groove 30 is formed from the side wall 27a to the side wall 27b. In the attached state, that is, in the attached state, the groove depth is formed so as to gradually deepen downward toward the center in the left-right direction of the conveyor 12.

  As shown in FIG. 3, since the steel wire W held using the holding blocks 26 and 27 has a curved shape, when the steel wire W is held in a downwardly convex state, which is a stable state, its end portion Is extended obliquely downward toward the center of the conveyor 12, and in this example, the groove depth of the V-shaped groove 30 is gradually lowered toward the center of the conveyor 12 in accordance with the inclination of the steel wire W. The contact length between the outer peripheral surface of the steel wire W and the side walls of the holding blocks 26 and 27 can be secured long in the axial direction. Or the clearance gap produced between the outer peripheral surface of the steel wire W and the side wall of the holding blocks 26 and 27 can be made small. For this reason, when held by the holding blocks 26 and 27, rattling of the steel wire W can be suppressed.

In FIG. 2, the rightmost end of the transport surface 22a, the position directly below the laser head 14, is the laser irradiation position. In the transfer conveyor 12, the holding blocks 26 and 27 on the transfer surface 22a sequentially move to the laser irradiation position.
Reference numeral 32 denotes a first workpiece detection sensor provided below the laser head 14. The first workpiece detection sensor 32 detects whether or not the steel wire W is being held for the holding blocks 26 and 27 that have moved to the laser irradiation position. When the first workpiece detection sensor 32 detects the steel wire W, the laser is irradiated to the steel wire W at the laser irradiation position as shown in FIG. Marking is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the wire W, specifically, the upper surface facing the laser head 14 at an intermediate position in the axial direction of the steel wire W.

  Further, in this example, a position that is one pitch (P) upstream from the laser irradiation position is set as a preliminary detection position, and the second workpiece for detecting the presence or absence of the steel wire W in the holding blocks 26 and 27 at the preliminary detection position. A detection sensor 34 is provided. As will be described later, the second workpiece detection sensor 34 is used to detect an abnormality such as undetected or erroneous detection of a workpiece (steel wire W) in the first workpiece detection sensor 32 at the laser irradiation position. It is.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a laser head 14 as a laser irradiation unit. Reference numeral 40 denotes a laser oscillator as a laser light source. In this example, a YAG laser is used. 42 is a focal length adjusting means for adjusting the focal length of the laser light, 44 is a scanning means for scanning the laser light in the X direction and the Y direction, and 46 is a condensing lens for condensing the laser light. .

  The focal length adjusting unit 42 includes an incident lens 48, an exit lens 49, and an entrance lens moving motor 50 that moves the entrance lens 48 in the approaching / separating direction with respect to the exit lens 49. The focal length adjusting means 42 can change the focal length S of the laser light emitted from the laser head 14, specifically the condenser lens 46, by changing the distance between the incident lens 48 and the outgoing lens 49. .

  The scanning unit 44 includes a set of galvanometer mirrors 52 and scanning motors 54 for rotating the galvanomirrors 52 in the X direction and the Y direction. In this example, by operating the scanning means 44 according to the designated marking content, the laser light on the surface of the steel wire W is moved in the X and Y directions, and the predetermined marking content is the steel wire W. Printed on the surface.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a control system of the marking apparatus 10. The control unit 16 that controls the operation of the conveyor 12 and the laser head 14 includes an information acquisition unit 56, a focal length deriving unit 58, an abnormality determination unit 60, and a storage unit 61. For example, a CPU, a RAM, an HDD, and various types An information processing apparatus having an interface or dedicated hardware can be used.
The control unit 16 includes a first workpiece detection sensor 32, a second workpiece detection sensor 34, a host computer 62, a drive motor 17 for the conveyor 12, a laser oscillator 40, an incident lens moving motor 50, and a scanning motor 54. It is connected.

  The information acquisition means 56 acquires wire diameter information and marking content information from the database of the host computer 62 that manages the process of manufacturing the wire coil product. In this example, the end part of a wire coil product is cut | disconnected in the order manufactured at the front process, and the obtained steel wire W is set to the marking apparatus 10 in the order. For this reason, wire diameter information and marking content information are also acquired from the database in the order in which the wire coil products are manufactured.

The focal length deriving means 58 derives the focal length of the laser beam suitable for marking based on the obtained wire diameter information of the steel wire W. In this example, marking is performed on the outer surface of the steel wire W held by the holding blocks 26 and 27, but when the wire diameter changes, from the condenser lens 46 shown in FIG. 3 to the outer surface of the steel wire W. Since the distance K changes, it is necessary to change the focal length S of the laser light.
In the focal length deriving means 58, the focal length S that can be clearly printed for each wire diameter of the steel wire W is investigated in advance, and the relationship between the wire diameter of the steel wire W and the focal length S is stored in the storage unit 61. The target focal length S can be obtained by taking out the value of the focal length S corresponding to the wire diameter information of the steel wire W acquired by the information acquisition means 56 from the storage unit 61.

In the marking device 10 configured as described above, the basic procedure for marking is as follows. First, the steel wire W obtained by cutting the end of the coil product manufactured in the previous process is set in the holding blocks 26 and 27 of the transport conveyor 12.
The steel wire W is transported while being held by the holding blocks 26 and 27. When the steel wire W reaches the laser irradiation position directly below the laser head 14, the first workpiece detection sensor 32 detects the steel wire W and the transport conveyor 12 is reached. Stops in that state (the state where the steel wire W is at the laser irradiation position). The control unit 16 derives the focal length S of the laser beam based on the wire diameter information obtained from the database of the host computer 62, and the focal length S of the laser beam in the laser head 14 is adjusted. Next, the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 40 and irradiated onto the surface of the steel wire W spot-melts a part of the surface of the steel wire W. At this time, the scanning unit 44 is controlled in accordance with the acquired marking content information. As a result, the irradiation position moves and a predetermined marking content is printed on the surface of the steel wire W.

  When marking is completed, the conveyor 12 resumes conveyance. When the new steel wire W reaches the laser irradiation position, the focal length is adjusted in the same manner as described above, and then the laser beam is irradiated and marking is performed.

  As described above, in this example, since marking is performed based on the detection result of the first workpiece detection sensor 32 that detects the steel wire W at the laser irradiation position, the detection result of the first workpiece detection sensor 32 is used. If there is an error, the steel wire W to be marked may not match the marking content. In order to prevent this, in this example, the abnormality determination means 60 is provided in the control unit 16, the steel wire material presence / absence information of the first workpiece detection sensor 32, and the second workpiece detection sensor 34 acquired in advance at the preliminary detection position. Compared with the steel wire material presence / absence information, if they do not match, it is determined as abnormal, and an alarm is issued and the marking operation is stopped.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 7 (A), when a certain holding block is in the preliminary detection position, the transport conveyor 12 is 1 pitch even though the second work detection sensor 34 is ON (work is present). When the first workpiece detection sensor 32 is OFF (no workpiece) when moving to (P) and reaching the laser irradiation position, the workpiece (steel wire rod) in which the first workpiece detection sensor 32 is present Since there is a high possibility that W) has not been detected, marking is stopped and an alarm is issued to prompt the operator to confirm.

  As shown in FIG. 7B, when a certain holding block is at the preliminary detection position, the conveyor 12 moves by one pitch even though the second workpiece detection sensor 34 is OFF, and the laser is moved. When the first workpiece detection sensor 32 is ON when the irradiation position is reached, the first workpiece detection sensor 32 has erroneously detected another component (or another steel wire). Therefore, the marking is stopped and an alarm is issued to prompt the operator to confirm.

  As shown in FIG. 7C, when a certain holding block is at the preliminary detection position, the second workpiece detection sensor 34 is ON, the conveyor 12 moves by one pitch (P), and laser irradiation is performed. When the first workpiece detection sensor 32 is also ON when the position is reached, the detection results of the two sensors match, and therefore the marking operation is continued.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the surface of the steel wire W is spot-dissolved by the laser beam to perform marking, so that the steel wire W can be printed with substantially no load. For this reason, there is no problem that the steel wire W escapes in the left-right direction due to the downward punching force at the time of marking, and clear marking can be applied to the steel wire W having a small wire diameter. Further, since it is not necessary to fix the position of the steel wire W with a strong force, the marking can be performed in a state where the steel wire W is placed on the holding blocks 26 and 27 for conveyance.

  In the present embodiment, the focal length deriving means 58 for deriving the focal length of the laser beam suitable for marking is provided based on the wire diameter information of the steel wire W to be marked, and the laser head 14 is provided based on the derived result. The focal length adjusting means 42 is operated to automatically adjust the focal length of the laser beam. For this reason, even if it is a case where the steel wire W from which a wire diameter differs is mixed, marking can be performed by changing the focal distance of a laser beam for every steel wire.

  In this embodiment, the information acquisition means 56 which acquires the wire diameter information and marking content information of the steel wire W to be marked from the external beta base is provided in the control unit 16, and is sequentially manufactured in the previous process. When marking the steel wire W obtained by cutting the end of the coil product in that order, wire diameter information and marking content information from the database of the host computer 62 managing the previous process in the order of manufacture. If acquired, it is possible to eliminate the need for the operator to input the wire diameter information and the marking content information to the marking device 10 again, thereby improving workability and preventing quality troubles due to input errors. it can.

  In the present embodiment, the steel wire rod presence / absence information of the first work detection sensor 32 and the second work detection sensor 34 acquired in advance at the preliminary detection position for the holding blocks 26 and 27 currently located at the laser irradiation position are used. An abnormality determination means 60 is provided in the control unit 16 for comparing the steel wire material presence / absence information and determining that the case where they do not coincide with each other is abnormal. In the holding blocks 26 and 27 at the laser irradiation position, no workpiece is detected ( If there is a possibility that there is a certain workpiece is not present) or a false detection (determined that there is a workpiece that should not be present), the marking operation can be stopped to prevent quality troubles.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, while forming the V-shaped groove | channel 30 which the upper surface opened in the holding blocks 26 and 27 holding the steel wire W, this V-shaped groove | channel 30 is directed toward the center part of the left-right direction of the conveyance conveyor 12. FIG. Since the depth of the groove is gradually increased, when the steel wire W to be marked has a shape curved in an arc shape, the steel wire W can be favorably held in a downwardly convex state. it can.

  Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, this is merely an example. In the above embodiment, the curved steel wire W is marked. However, the present invention can be applied to the steel wire W extending in a straight line, and the present invention has various modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention. It can be implemented in an embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Marking device 12 Conveyor 14 Laser head (laser irradiation part)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 16 Control part 26,27 Holding block 30 V-shaped groove 32 1st workpiece | work detection means 34 2nd workpiece | work detection means 42 Focal length adjustment means 56 Information acquisition means 58 Focal length derivation means 60 Abnormality determination means

Claims (5)

A transport conveyor in which a plurality of left and right holding blocks for holding the steel wire are arranged in parallel in the transport direction;
A laser irradiation unit disposed on the downstream side of the transport direction of the transport conveyor and above the steel wire;
A control unit for controlling the operations of the conveyor and the laser irradiation unit,
A marking device configured to perform marking by irradiating a surface of the steel wire held by the pair of holding blocks with a laser beam. The laser irradiation unit includes a focal length adjustment unit that adjusts a focal length of the laser light,
In addition, the control unit includes a focal length deriving unit that derives the focal length of the laser light based on the wire diameter information of the steel wire to be marked.
2. The marking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the focal length adjusting unit is operated based on a result derived by the focal length deriving unit to automatically adjust the focal length of the laser beam.   The control unit includes information acquisition means for acquiring the wire diameter information and the marking content information from an external beta base in which the wire diameter information and marking content information of the steel wire to be marked are registered. The marking device according to claim 2. A first work detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the steel wire rod for the holding block at the laser irradiation position on the conveyor,
A second workpiece detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the steel wire rod for the holding block at the preliminary detection position set upstream from the laser irradiation position; and
The control unit includes the steel wire material presence / absence information of the first work detection sensor and the steel wire material presence / absence of the second work detection sensor acquired in advance at the preliminary detection position for the holding block at the laser irradiation position. The marking device according to claim 1, further comprising an abnormality determination unit that compares information with each other and determines that the information does not match as abnormal.   The V-groove having an open upper surface is formed in the holding block, and the V-groove is formed so that the groove depth gradually becomes deeper toward the center of the conveyor. The marking apparatus in any one of 1-4.

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