JP2019514692A - Transport device with clamping tongs - Google Patents

Abstract

In a transport apparatus for transporting workpieces in multi-station molding equipment, a clamp (32a, 32b) configured as a clamp tong to clamp one workpiece respectively is disposed in a clamp support portion The clamp support is movable back and forth between the stations of the forming facility. The clamping tool drive unit is a clamping tool support unit for the individual operation of the clamping tool (32a, 32b) which is designated by the clamping tool driving unit to individually hold the clamping tool (32a, 32b) and hold or release the work. Is located in The jaws have two tongue arms (32a, 32b) which are linearly movable towards and away from each other by means of the jaw drives. The clamp drive unit is configured to be servo-controlled by electricity or hydraulic pressure. Clamping tongues having tongue arms (32a, 32b) movable linearly towards and away from each other reach uniformly within the clamping radius and to engage the workpiece at similar angles on both sides This is advantageous over a clamp having a pivotable tongue arm. The servo control arrangement of the clamp drive makes it possible to control the position of the tongue arm.

Description

  The invention relates, according to the preamble of claim 1, to a transport device for transporting workpieces in a molding installation comprising at least two stations.

  In mass-forming and other forming operations, in general, the work passes successively through several stations of the forming installation, which are transported from station to station. In molding facilities, these stations are typically loading stations and various stations. In order to transport the workpiece to each station, a transport device is generally used which comprises a tongue-like grasping tool and operates according to the rhythm of the forming equipment. The clamping tool synchronously clamps the work, pulls the work from one station, supplies it to a separate next station, and releases the work.

  In the case of the known forming equipment, the transport movement and operation of the clamping tool is connected to the power train of the forming equipment, for example the patent document 1 is known.

  A general transport device for transporting workpieces in a forming facility is described in US Pat. In this known transport device, a plurality of clamping tools configured in a clamping tongue manner are arranged on a common tongue support, each clamping tool being a dedicated clamping tool drive separated from the power train of the forming facility And the tongue support is longitudinally movable by means of the jointing back and forth of all clamping tongues between any two adjacent stations of the forming facility, also in the transverse direction with respect to the longitudinal direction. It is movable. The clamping tongs have two pivoting arms, which are kinematically driven by the servomotor via the coupling part and are thus pivotable towards one another and away from one another.

  The problem with conventional transport devices is that in the event of a processing failure, for example, in the event of a processing failure that is caused by a workpiece misinserted in a clamping tool or by a broken item such as a broken clamping tool or a broken punch. In most cases, failure of the transport or molding equipment can result, as it can not react to the

Swiss Patent Application Publication No. 595 155 European Patent No. 1048372

  With respect to the problems of the background art, the following invention can improve the transport device mentioned at the outset, so that it can reduce the processing failure caused by the work misinserted in the clamping tool.

  This problem is solved by the transport device according to the invention as defined in the independent claim 1 of the claims. Particularly advantageous developments and embodiments of the invention appear from the dependent claims of the claims.

  The core of the present invention is as follows. The transport device for transporting the workpiece in the forming facility comprising at least two stations has a clamping tool support which can be moved back and forth between the stations of the forming facility, and the clamping tongues for clamping one workpiece respectively And at least two clamps configured in the manner described above are arranged in the clamp support. A clamping tool drive is arranged in the clamping tool support for individual operation of the clamping tool to clamp or release a workpiece. Each clamp configured as a clamp tongue has two tongue arms, and the two tongue arms are linearly moveable towards and away from each other by the clamp drive. The clamp drive unit is configured to be servo-controlled by electricity or hydraulic pressure.

  By having the clamping tongs be movable linearly towards one another and away from one another, it is possible to avoid errors when clamping the workpiece. A clamping tongue having tongue arms which are linearly movable towards and away from each other, when engaged on the work at the same angle on both sides, this clamping tongue uniformly reaches within the clamping radius It is advantageous over a clamp having a pivotable tongue arm. This reduces the risk of the workpiece being pushed diagonally by the clamping tongue. Each pinching tongue can be individually adjusted and operated by the pinching tool drive designated individually for each pinching tong. The electrical or hydraulic configuration of the clamp drive allows the servo control to control the position of the tongue arm so that the desired speed can be achieved.

  Advantageously, the tongue arms are respectively arranged on the respective tongue carriages, the tongue carriages being slidably mounted on the tongue bodies, the tongue carriages kinematically in each toothed rod Connected, the toothed rod is engaged with the motorizable drive pinion, and the tongue arm is also movable in the opposite direction by the drive pinion as the tongue carriage moves in the opposite direction by the drive pinion. This represents a structurally simple realization of the linear mobility of the tongue arm.

  Advantageously, the tongue arm is arranged to be adjustable relative to the tongue carriage. Thus, the tongue arm can be easily adjusted to the work.

  Advantageously, each jaw drive has an (electrical) servomotor, which has a rotary encoder for the release and closing of the jaws. The servomotor is particularly well suited as a drive motor or positioning motor, given its range of controllable movement, and also allows detection (feedback) of the force exerted by the clamp (via torque) .

  Advantageously, the jaw drive is designated a jaw controller, and the jaw controller is configured to individually control the opening and closing movement of the individual jaws. Advantageously, the clamp control is also configured to individually control the clamping force of the individual clamps. This allows for optimal application to specific requirements. In particular, the clamping force can be adjusted, for example, to make the clamping force during transport smaller than the clamping force when the workpiece is introduced into the clamping tongue. Therefore, the load on the device parts is as high as necessary.

  Very advantageously, the clamp controller recognizes, for example, processing faults caused by empty clamps or by workpieces incorrectly inserted in the clamps, and notifies the support controller of the faults. Is configured. Such an arrangement allows for early recognition of processing failures and can reduce the resulting damage.

  Particularly advantageously, the clamping device comprises a four-point holding mechanism for the workpiece to be held, the four-point holding mechanism being formed by a tongue shoe. The four-point maintenance mechanism makes it possible in particular to reliably maintain the workpiece and to reduce the risk of tilting of the workpiece, and in particular to reduce the risk of tilting of the workpiece when the workpiece is introduced into a closed holding tongue. .

  The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings.

Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence Schematic and cross-sectional views of the forming equipment at various stages of the processing sequence An overall perspective view of the conveying device of the molding facility according to FIGS. 1-6 Front view of transport device Side view of the transport device Sectional view of the transport apparatus according to line X-X in FIG. Perspective view of the clamping unit of the transport device A perspective rear view of the clamp unit of FIG. 11 Front view of the clamp unit of FIG. 11 Sectional view of the clamping unit according to line XIV-XIV in FIG. Side view of the clamp unit of FIG. 11 Sectional view of a clamp unit according to the XVI-XVI line of FIG. Sectional view of the clamping unit according to line XVII-XVII in FIG. A schematic view of a molding facility control mechanism or a conveying device in the molding facility A schematic view of the moving track of the clamping tool of the transport device during normal operation Schematic diagram of the moving track of the clamping tool in a processing failure accident

  The following notes apply to the following description. Where reference numbers are not mentioned to the directly relevant parts of the description of what is included in the drawings for the sake of clarity in the drawings, reference should be made to the interpretation of these reference numbers in the preceding and following description. On the other hand, in order to avoid overcomplicating the drawings, reference numerals less relevant to immediate understanding are not included in all drawings. In such a case, other drawings should be referred to.

  The general illustration of FIGS. 1-6 shows a portion of a molding facility according to the present invention and is responsible for the understanding of the present invention. 1 is a view seen from the front according to the I-I line of FIG. 2, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view according to the II-II line of FIG. Similarly, FIGS. 3 and 5 are front views and FIGS. 4 and 6 are related cross-sectional views.

  In the exemplary embodiment shown, the forming facility generally designated by the reference M comprises five stations 110, 120, 130, 140, 150 arranged in sequence, of which the first station is the loading station And the other stations 120, 130, 140, 150 are forming stations. The forming stations 120, 130, 140, 150 are formed by four forming dies 121, 131, 141, 151 arranged in a common die holder 101, forming tools in the form of punches 122, 132, 142, 152 and four discharges. With the elements 123, 133, 143, 153, the ejection elements 123, 133, 143, 153 can be used to eject from the forming die the workpiece W already formed in the forming die by means of a punch. The loading station 110 includes a shearing device 112 for shearing a work from a bar (not shown, similarly supplied by a bar feeding device not shown), and a discharge element 113 capable of discharging the work from the shearing device 112. Equipped with A transport device, generally designated by the reference T, is provided for transporting workpieces from one station of the forming facility M to a separate next station. Each of FIGS. 1-6 shows only the clamp of the conveying apparatus T, and each clamp has a pair of tongue arms 32a and 32b.

  During operation of the forming facility, at the start position of the tongue-like jaws of the transport device T, each jaw is formed from a pair of tongue arms 32a, 32b and takes one of the workpieces W. The workpiece W is held at the loading station 110 in a ready state, or already from the forming dies 121, 131, 141, 151 of the forming stations 120, 130, 140, 150 (FIG. 1, FIG. 2). It was discharged. The clamping tool subsequently transports these workpieces W simultaneously to the next separate station of the forming plant M. The workpieces that have been shaped may be taken from the last forming station 150 released and removed from the shaping facility. Figures 3 and 4 show that. At the forming station 120, 130, 140, 150, the workpiece W is inserted into the forming die 121, 131, 141, 151 and subjected to forming by the punches 122, 132, 142, 152. The transport device T subsequently returns the (empty) clamping tool to the starting position shown in FIGS. Then, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, each clamping tool takes a new work W and transports these works to the next station in the forming facility again. The new work W is one that is held at the loading station 110 in a ready state or that has already been discharged from the forming dies 121, 131, 141, 151 of the forming stations 120, 130, 140, 150. is there. The entire sequence is performed in the transport cycle in accordance with the rhythm of the molding facility M.

  From the simplified description of the transport operation described above, it is clear that in each transport cycle, each clamping tool transports a different work and that each pair of adjacent stations in the forming facility is clamped by different clamping tools . In the context of the present invention, the transport of workpieces from station to station in a forming installation by means of a plurality of clamping tools should be understood in this way.

  So far, no further explanation is necessary to the person skilled in the art on this point, since the forming equipment M shown corresponds structurally and in operational mode to this type of conventional forming equipment.

  The conveying device of the forming facility M will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 7-17. The transport device generally referred to by the reference T comprises a fixed frame 10, a planar clamp support 20 and a clamp support drive element, the clamp support 20 on the frame 10 Or, it is arranged to be movable inside, and supports five clamp units 30 in the example here. All clamp units 30 are arranged at a similar distance from a common reference plane E (FIG. 7). The front of the planar clamp support 20 facing the clamp unit is aligned parallel to the reference plane E. The clamp support drive element comprises two clamp support drive motors 55, 56, each clamp support drive motor 55, 56 being a servomotor having a rotary encoder and a gearing. It is configured and firmly attached to the frame 10. In addition, the clamp support unit driving element includes two crank gear mechanisms, and each crank gear mechanism has cranks 51 and 52 and drive rods (connection rods) 53 and 54, respectively. The cranks 51, 52 are rigidly mounted on the rotatable portions of the transmissions of the clamp tool support drive motors 55, 56, respectively, and can be rotationally driven. In practice, since the frame 10 is mounted on the machine body (not shown) of the molding installation M, it is removable or pivotable, so that application to a molding die or tool is easily obtained.

  In the frame 10, two parallel guide rods 11, 12 are arranged (FIGS. 7-10), their axes defining a reference plane E (FIG. 7). The two connecting rods 13, 14 are guided linearly on or along these guide rods 11, 12, so that they can be displaced linearly in the longitudinal direction of the guide rods. Also, the two connecting rods 13, 14 are pivotably joined around one of the two guide rods 11, 12, respectively. At one end away from the guide rods, the connecting rods 13, 14 are pivotably connected to the clamp support 20 by means of two pairs of journals 15, 16 (FIGS. 9, 10). The distance between the two pairs of journals 15, 16 is similar to the distance between the two guide rods 11, 12. The distance between the journal 15 and the guide rod 11 is similar to the distance between the journal 16 and the guide rod 12. Thus, the two parallel guide rods 11, 12 and the two connection rods 13, 14 together with the clamp support 20 form a parallelogram guide mechanism for the clamp support 20, the clamp support 20 being 2 It is also displaceable in one of the directions (up and down in the figure), the two directions being transverse to the longitudinal direction of the guide rods 11, 12. In FIG. 7 this lateral direction is represented by the double arrow 25. At the same time, the clamp support 20 can be moved back and forth along the guide rods 11 and 12 in the longitudinal direction of the guide rods 11 and 12 in a guided manner via the connection rods 13 and 14 slidably mounted. This is illustrated in FIG. 7 by the double arrow 26. Thus, the clamp support 20 is guided so as to be linearly movable parallel to the reference plane E. In addition, the clamp support 20 is mounted so as to be substantially parallel to the reference plane and to be laterally displaceable with respect to its linear movement.

  The respective drive rods (connection rods) 53, 54 are rotatably joined to the cranks 51, 52 respectively at one end thereof, and are rotatably joined to the clamp support 20 by the other end. By means of the corresponding rotation of the two cranks 51, 52 by the two clamp support drive motors 55, 56, the clamp support 20 is moved in the direction of the double arrow 26 and / or double arrow 25 ) Can be moved as desired.

  The advantage of the parallelogram guide is that during the lateral displacement of the jaw support 20 (pivotal movement around the guide bar), only a small displacement is perpendicular to its displacement movement, ie perpendicular to the reference plane E. To do.

  FIG. 19 shows a representative trajectory of the movement of the jaw support 20 and, thus, the jaw unit 30 tied to the jaw support 20. The closed and periodically following moving track 21 comprises four moving track sections 21a-21d. The two linear movement track sections 21a, 21c are slidingly guided along the guide rods of the jaw support 20, in forward and backward movements between the stations of the forming facility Correspond to movement. On the other hand, the two moving track sections 21b and 21d bring about displacement of the clamp support 20 by the parallelogram guide mechanism. The points 22, 23 respectively indicate the starting position of the jaw support 20 shown in FIG. 1 and the position of the displaced jaw support 20 of one station shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 19, the forward movement of the clamp support 20 takes place along the first linear trajectory of movement (moving track section 21a), while the return movement of the clamp support 20 is of movement It is performed along the linear trajectory (movement trajectory section 21c) of movement parallel to the first linear trajectory. As shown in FIG. 5, in the horizontal plane of the second linear trajectory of movement, the clamp unit 30 disposed in the clamp support 20, or the clamp is a molding tool of the forming station 120, 130, 140, 150 The distance between the two linear movements due to the displacement of the jaw support 20 is selected so as to be outside the engagement range of 122, 132, 142, 152. Reference numeral 27 indicates a waiting position to be considered further later.

  The clamp unit 30 arranged in a separate next clamp support 20 is likewise constructed. These structures are illustrated in Figures 11-17.

  Each clamping tool unit 30 is a clamping tool support in the form of an (electrical) servomotor 33 having a tong body 31, a pair of movable tong arms 32a, 32b forming a clamping tong, a rotary encoder and a transmission. The servomotor is shown only in FIG. 9 and FIG. The tongue main body 31 and the servomotor 33 are respectively mounted on the clamp tool supporting portion 20 including the transmission portion. The two tongue arms 32a, 32b are movably disposed on the tongue body 31.

  In the tongue body 31, the two tongue carriages 35a, 35b are displaceably mounted on the three guide rods 34a, 34b, 34c. The tong carriers 35a, 35b are respectively kinematically connected to the respective toothed rods 37a, 37b via the drive rods 36a, 36b respectively, so that the movement of the toothed rods is associated with the tong carriages The movement (comcomitant movement) takes place, and the movement of the tongs carriage also causes the accompanying movement of the toothed rod. The two toothed rods 37a, 37b engage on diagonally opposite sides of the drive pinion 38, which can be rotationally driven by the servomotor 33 (via its transmission). Thus, during rotation of the drive pinion 38, the two toothed rods 37a, 37b move in opposite directions, so that the two tongue arms 32a, 32b move towards or away from each other. Further, the opening and closing operation of the holding tongs formed by the holding tools 32 a and 32 b is influenced by the servomotor 33 or the drive pinion 38.

  Alternatively, the clamp support drive element may be in the form of a servo-controlled (with servo valve) hydraulic drive. In this case, it is important that the movement of the clamping tongs can be influenced quickly, in particular that the movement of the clamping tongs can be influenced quickly while being position controlled, and that the clamping forces of the two tongue arms are precisely adjusted or controlled. Can be fed back. The same applies to the case of the clamp support drive element having the electric servomotor described above.

  At the free ends of the two tongue arms 32a, 32b, provided and exchangeably coupled tong shoes 39a, 39b are provided for holding the work, so that the clamping tongs should be held It can be easily adapted to the shape of the work (Figure 11). The tongue shoes do not have to be configured and / or arranged identically in all the clamping tongues. Preferably, as shown, two tongue shoes are arranged in each tongue arm, with particular advantage that the two tongue shoes together form a four point holding mechanism for the work to be held Do. Such a four-point holding mechanism makes it possible to reliably maintain the workpiece, and reduces the risk of the workpiece being inclined, particularly when the workpiece is introduced into a closed holding tongue.

  The tongue arms 32a, 32b are releasably connected to the tongue carriages 35a, 35b respectively via a pair of serrated plates 40a, 40b (FIGS. 15, 17). In this way, for example, the tongue arms 32a, 32b can be easily adjusted laterally or in height relative to the respective tongue carriages 35a, 35b in order to apply the clamping tongues to a particular workpiece.

  As shown in FIG. 18, the transport device T operates the support controller 60 for the support drive motors 55, 56 and the support drive motor 33 of the individual support unit 30. And a clamp controller 70 for The clamp controller 70 is configured to individually control the opening and closing operation and the clamping force of the individual clamps, here the clamps 32a, 32b. The support controller 60 calculates the rotated position of the two cranks 51, 52 that need to be moved along the travel track 21 of the clamp support 20, and thus controls the servomotors 55, 56. In addition, the support controller 60 cooperates with the sensor device 65, and the sensor device 65 recognizes an event of a processing failure, for example, a processing failure caused by an inoperable work in the loading station 110 or a lost work W '. And is configured to notify the support controller 60 of this failure.

  The sensor devices 65, which are only pointed out in FIGS. 2, 4 and 6, are assigned to the bar feed device (not shown) mentioned earlier and may also be, for example, a light barrier arrangement . Such a sensor device itself on a rod feeding device is known per se and is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. The sensor device 65 can recognize the beginning and the end of the rod. When the sensor arrangement 65 recognizes the beginning or the end of the rod, it informs this to the support controller 60 so that the support controller should have the next rod incomplete and be discarded Know that, that is, know that the next bar is not allowed to enter the forming process. The support controller 60 then responds to the processing failure in the manner described in detail below.

  The support controller 60 and the clamp controller 70 cooperate with the upper controller 80, and the upper controller 80 is in particular connected with the forming facility, where the clamp support or its clamp should be located in the movement track Identify The host controller 80 allows the operator to input or change a set value, for example, a set value related to the movement of the holding tool support or a set value related to the opening and closing operation of the holding tongue. It should be understood that the functions of support controller 60, clamp controller 70 and superordinate controller 80 can be realized by other arrangements, for example, integrating them into a single controller .

  As mentioned at the outset, in the forming plant, in particular in the thermoforming plant, the raw material is generally provided in the form of a rod from which pieces of the required length are cut. The beginning and end of the rod should not be allowed to enter the forming process and should be discarded. These discarded parts are eliminated from the forming process and result in empty forming stations in the forming facility, which should be avoided for the reasons first explained.

  The drive of the clamp support portion 20 or the drive of the clamps 32a and 32b disposed in the clamp support portion 20 are independent and separated from the power train of the molding equipment, so the transport according to the present invention described above The device makes it possible to avoid an empty forming station in the forming facility.

  For example, if the sensor device 65 mentioned earlier detects a processing failure caused by a lost work or by a work W 'to be discarded without being suitable for further processing (Fig. 5, 6) A corresponding control command is sent to the support controller 60 for the partial drive element. The support controller 60 then separates the clamp support 20 having the clamp unit 30 from its normal moving track 21 (FIG. 19), and instead, the clamp unit 30 in which the work W is positioned The holding tool support 20 is moved to the waiting position 27 (FIG. 20). The waiting position is located, for example, in the moving track section 21c above the clamp support 20, and the tongue arms 32a, 32b of the clamp unit 30 are positioned above and between the tools 112, 122, 132, 142, 152. Thus, tong arms 32a, 32b are out of range of the tools 112, 122, 132, 142, 152. This situation is illustrated in FIGS. And although the forming tool makes an empty swing, this empty swing does not adversely affect since all the forming stations are empty. Preferably, the cooling of the tool is suspended at this stage, so that the tool and the work in the waiting position are not cooled. Incomplete work W 'is discarded (by known means).

  When the sensor device 65 reports that the workpiece W suitable for forming processing arrives at the loading station 110 again, the support controller 60 returns the clamp support 20 to its original movement track, and the workpiece is transported to the respective forming stations And the gripper support portion 20 moves along the normal movement path 21 to the starting position 22 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to take the work W at the starting position 22 to take the work Transport to a separate next forming station.

  FIG. 20 shows the configuration of the movement sequence of the holding tool support 20 described in the processing failure accident. The movement of the clamp support 20 to the waiting position 27 is performed along the movement track section 24a, and the movement of the clamp support 20 from the waiting position 27 to the position 23 is performed along the movement track section 24b. The general trajectory of movement from position 22 via position 27 to position 23 is shown at 24. The travel track sections 24a, 24b need not follow the course shown in FIG. The movement of the clamp support 20 may, for example, be along the alternative travel track sections 24'a, 24'b, and the alternative travel track sections 24'a and 24'b are typically The moving track sections 21d and 21c of the moving track 21 and the moving track sections 21c and 21b, respectively.

  Classifying the transport from the powertrain of the forming facility allows the transport, lifting and pinching times and routes to be adjusted and changed independently of the stroke of the former. Here, "lifting" is understood to be the longitudinal displacement of the clamp support 20, the lifting stroke corresponding to the longitudinal distance between the two moving track sections 21a, 21c. Adjustment of the lifting and nipping motion separated from the stroke of the forming tool allows an individual application to a particular workpiece, resulting in reduced wear of the equipment. Also, according to it, in an accident that occurs in the tool chamber, for example, when the molded product is incompletely pushed out of the molding die, when the broken punch falls in the molding die, or the molded product comes from the clamping tool In case of absence, in response to the situation, move the clamp support 20 with the clamp unit 30 to a safe position, for example the waiting position 27 mentioned before, and stop the molding equipment until the fault is eliminated It can also be done. Thus, for example, breakage or resulting breakage of the holding tool that occurs in the transfer device can be prevented.

  As mentioned earlier, the clamp units 30 can be individually controlled by the clamp controller 70. As a result, the start and end times can be individually adjusted for each clamp unit. The opening stroke of the tongue arms 32a, 32b and the period of its movement can be applied to the workpiece in question. The same applies to lifting and moving. In order to keep the acceleration and the corresponding load low in the construction of the device, its movement may be optimized for stroke and duration for each work. Conversely, the curves controlled by known conveying devices are always designed for the largest possible stroke, so that every workpiece or part is subjected to the largest load and therefore the largest wear.

  In order to compensate for the geometrical defects of the blank section or to achieve an off-centre predistribution of the material, for example in the manufacture of cams, the first clamping tongs or other clamping tongs It needs to be positioned eccentrically. In known transport devices, eccentric adjustment elements are used for this purpose, or the tongue shoes are adjusted by trial and error so that the center of the workpiece is offset from the center point by the desired amount. According to the transport apparatus of the present invention, the desired amount is input from the center point (zero position) to the clamp support 20 by the clamp support drive motors 55 and 56 through inputting the desired value to the host controller 80. Can be easily moved. Then the concerned clamping tongs are aligned with the central adjustment element and then the clamping tool support is again moved to the null position. In this way, one or more clamping tongues can be positioned eccentrically. When the clamp support 20 returns to the center point (zero position) again, the remaining clamp tongues are adjusted.

  The clamping or holding force of each clamping unit 30 is controlled by the clamping controller 70 via the torque with respect to the servomotor 33 and can easily be applied to the workpiece to be held in this way, selectively It can also be changed over the movement cycle of the clamp support. The clamping force can be adjusted, for example, to make the clamping force during transport smaller than the clamping force when the workpiece is introduced into the clamping tongs. Therefore, the load on the device parts is as high as necessary.

  Servomotors generally have a rotary encoder to feed back the current rotational position to its controller. Using the rotary encoder, the clamp controller 70 can easily check whether the clamp is being mounted or empty. For example, by comparing the actual rotational position with the desired rotational position, it can be easily ascertained whether a work piece has already been removed from the clamping tool, so that it should be easily ascertained whether the forming device should stop. it can. By means of a suitable arrangement of the clamp control 70, it is also possible to recognize processing faults caused, for example, by the obliquely positioned workpiece in the clamp or by tearing open of the clamp. In this case, this is signaled to the support controller 60 in a suitable way by the clamp controller 70, and the support controller 60 is in a safe position, for example in the clamp support 20 with the clamp unit 30 , Move to the previously mentioned waiting position 27 and the clamp support 20 stops at the safe position until the processing failure is resolved. The clamping tool has the risk of becoming torn open when, for example, the workpiece is incompletely ejected from the die, or when a broken punch has fallen into the workpiece. When it is going to convey a work, the clamping tool may tear open. The clamp controller 70 recognizes this early and makes a return movement of the clamp support via the support controller 60 so that the clamp in question avoids tear open. The clamp support 20 with the clamp unit 30 subsequently moves to a safe position, for example the waiting position 27 mentioned above, and stops at that safe position until the processing failure is resolved. During this period, the molding equipment will of course be shut down. In this way, it is possible to react quickly to process failures before relatively large failures occur. The cooperation of the clamp controller 70 and the support controller 60 is indicated by the arrow 71 shown in FIG.

  The clamps or clamping tongs of the conveying device described above have parallel tongue arms 32a, 32b, which are linearly movable towards and away from each other. Such a clamping tong is advantageous over a clamping tool having a pivotable tongue arm, since the tongue shoe can be uniformly distributed within the clamping radius. If the tongue shoes engage with the workpiece at the same angle on both sides, at the introduction of the workpiece, the tongue shoes are pushed to the workpiece at the same angle. This reduces the risk of the workpiece being pushed diagonally by the clamping tongue.

Claims (8)

  A transport device for transporting workpieces in a molding facility (M) comprising at least two stations (110, 120, 130, 140, 150), said transport device being between the stations of the molding facility (M) Has at least two clamps (32a, 32b) configured as clamp tongues for clamping one work (W) by having clamp support parts (20) movable back and forth. Said clamping tool arranged in the clamping tool support (20), said clamping tools (32a, 32b) being respectively designated by the clamping tool drive unit (33), clamping or releasing the work (W) For individual operation of (32a, 32b), the clamp driving unit (33) is disposed on the clamp support unit (20), and each of the clamps has two tongue arms (32). 32b), said two tongue arms (32a, 32b) being linearly movable towards and away from each other by means of said clamp drive (33), said clamp drive (33) A transport device, each configured to be servo-controlled by electricity or hydraulic pressure.   The tongue arms (32a, 32b) are disposed on the respective tongue carriages (35a, 35b), and the tongue carriages (35a, 35b) are slidably mounted on the tongue body (31), Tongue carriers (35a, 35b) are kinematically connected to the respective toothed rods (37a, 37b), said toothed rods (37a, 37b) being motorizable drive pinions (38) And the tongue arms (32a, 32b) are also moved in the opposite direction by the drive pinion (38) as the tongue carriages (35a, 35b) are moved by the drive pinion (38) in the opposite direction. The transport apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transport apparatus is movable.   3. Transport device according to claim 2, wherein the tongue arms (32a, 32b) are arranged to be adjustable relative to the tongue carrier (35a, 35b).   Each of said clamp drive (33) comprises a servomotor (33), said servomotor (33) comprising a rotary encoder for releasing and closing said clamps (32a, 32b). Or the conveying apparatus as described in 2.   The clamping tool drive unit (33) is designated as a clamping tool controller (70), and the clamping tool controller (70) individually controls the opening / closing operation and the clamping force of the individual clamping tools (32a, 32b) 5. A transport apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the transport apparatus is configured as follows.   The transport apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the clamp controller (70) is configured to individually control the clamping force of the individual clamps (32a, 32b).   The clamping tool controller (70) recognizes processing failure caused by a vacant clamping tool or a work (W) erroneously inserted in the clamping tool and notifies the support unit controller (60) The conveyance apparatus of Claim 5 or 6 comprised in these.   A clamping device (32a, 32b) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a four-point maintenance mechanism for the workpiece to be clamped, said four-point maintenance mechanism being formed by tongue shoes (39a, 39b). The transport apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims.

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