JP2507709B2 - Automatic wheel mounting device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) In the present invention, for example, when one wheel hub has four hub bolts, if one nut is properly tightened, The present invention relates to a technique in which the work can be continued without stopping the vehicle body assembly line as a result.

(Prior Art) In the assembly line of a vehicle body, a wheel is mounted on a vehicle body hub by passing a hub bolt through a bolt insertion hole of the wheel wheel and tightening a nut with a nut runner on the hub bolt. Since four hub bolts are usually provided for one hub, four nut runners are used to simultaneously tighten the nuts.

By the way, when tightening a nut with the above-mentioned nut runner, when the nut does not stick well to the hub bolt, the nut is not tightened to the hub bolt, and the nut remains in the socket of the nut runner. In such a state, a new nut cannot be supplied into the socket, so in the past,
The wheel installation work is stopped and the nuts are removed manually.

However, if the nut is removed by hand every time the nut is tightened poorly, the work efficiency is poor. Therefore, a device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 227504/1984 is proposed.

In FIG. 1 of the publication, the tire W sent by the tire conveyor 10 is aligned by the tire phasing device 20, the tire W is gripped by the tire mounting unit 50, inverted, and moved forward to move the wheel hub H. And attach it with the nut using the attached nut runner 73 (see Fig. 10).

When an abnormality occurs in the tightening, the tire mounting unit 50 shown in FIG. 1 moves backward together with the nut runner 73 and the gripped tire W, horizontally swivels 90 ° and reverses, and transfers the tire W to the tire discharge conveyor 141. It is discharged to the outside via the conveyor 140. After releasing the tire W, the nutrunner 73
Since there is a possibility that the nut remains in the tire mounting unit 50, move the tire mounting unit
Face 150 and remove the nut.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The conventional device described above is a tire mounting unit when an abnormality occurs.
The tire 50 is moved backward greatly and the tire W is fed to the tire discharge conveyor 14
The moving route of the tire mounting unit 50, that is, the nut runner 73 is largely different between the normal time and the abnormal time so that the nut runner 73 faces the nut discharging device 150 after that. This increases the cycle time,
It is clear that the production efficiency will decrease.

Further, even if the tire W is normal, the four wheels are not attached to the vehicle body until the next tire W is attached in order to remove it from the line together with the nut. Since all four wheels are mounted on the vehicle body and then passed to the next step, the production efficiency of the above-mentioned conventional apparatus is significantly reduced.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention supplies a plurality of nuts from a nut feeder to a nut supply device, and the nut supply device supplies the nuts to each socket of a plurality of nut runners. When mounting the wheel on the hub by screwing the nut into the hub bolt of the vehicle body with these nut runners, the tightening torque detection means detects the tightening torque, and when it is defective, it remains in the socket of the nut runner. In an automatic wheel mounting device that discharges nuts with a nut discharging device, both the nut supplying device and the nut discharging device are placed on a carrier truck that moves between a nut feeder and the nut runner, If the tightening torque is normal for all the runners, the nut feeding device will reach the nut runner If one or more of the nut runners have a defective tightening torque, the carrier is moved until the nut discharging device faces the nut runner to discharge the residual nuts, and at least one of the plurality of nuts is moved. When the individual is tightened to the hub bolt with a predetermined tightening torque, the vehicle body is moved to the next step.

(Operation) If the tightening torque is normal for all of the nut runners, the nut feeding device moves the carrier to reach the nut runners and repeats the tightening cycle.

If one or more of the nut runners have a poor tightening torque, move the carrier to eject the remaining nuts until the nut ejector faces the nut runners. Even in this case, if one nut is properly tightened on one wheel, the wheel will not drop from the vehicle body, so that the vehicle body can be sent to the next process with four wheels.

(Example) Below, the Example of this invention is described based on an accompanying drawing.

FIG. 1 is a side view of an automatic wheel mounting apparatus according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a front view of the device, and the vehicle body (1) is intermittently transported to the wheel mounting position by the transport device (2). A lifter (3) is provided at the wheel mounting position, and the vehicle body (1) is supported on the lifter (3) by raising the lifter (3). Here, air bearings (4) ... Are provided on the upper surface of the lifter (3), and the vehicle body (1) is floatingly supported in the vehicle width direction while being restricted from moving in the front-rear direction.

Further, machine bases (6) are arranged on the side of the vehicle body at the wheel mounting positions so as to correspond to the hubs (5). The machine base (6) is provided on a rail (7) extending in the vehicle width direction, and is moved back and forth in the vehicle width direction by the operation of the cylinder unit (8).

A robot (9) is provided on the machine base (6). This robot (9) has a hub bolt (5
a) The same number as the number of nut runners (10) and the wheel holding member (11) are incorporated (A), and a correction member for correcting the cutting angle and the vehicle width direction position of the hub (5). 12) and a portion (B) incorporating a phasing member, and these portions (A) and (B) are separated by 90 ° about the rotation axis of the robot (9). , (B) rotate about a rotation axis in a vertical plane. Further, the robot (9) as a whole is moved up and down by the cylinder unit (13), and the portion (A) is moved forward and backward in the axial direction of the nut runner (10) by the cylinder unit (14).

On the other hand, a nut feeding device (1
5) is located. FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view and FIG. 4 is a plan view showing details of the structure of the nut supply device (15).
The following description is based on FIG. 5 and FIG. 5 viewed from the Z direction in FIG.

In the nut supply device (15), an index table (17) for supplying and distributing nuts and a nut discharging device (18) are fixedly mounted on a carriage (16). The carrier vehicle (16) engages with the rails (20) mounted in the frame (19) in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, and the motor (21) provided on the carrier vehicle (16) drives the nuts from the nut feeder (22). Guide member (2
3) and the nut runner (10) at the receiving position can be moved along the rail (20).

Further, a vertical cylinder unit (24) is fixedly mounted on the carrier vehicle (16), and a lifting plate (25) is attached to a rod of the cylinder unit (24), and a motor (26) is attached to the lifting plate (25). ) And the index table (17) are supported, and the index table (17) is intermittently rotated by 45 ° or 90 ° by driving the motor (26). The K index table (17) has a fourth on the top.
As shown in the figure, two types of nut receiving pins (27) and (28) are attached via springs, etc., and one type of pin (27)
4 are provided at 90 ° intervals, that is, the same number as the hub bolts (5a), and the other types of pins (28) are located between these pins (27). The two types of pins are prepared in this way in order to easily deal with model changes.

A supporting plate (29) forming a part of the discharging device (18) is fixed to the lifting plate (25), and two types of stud bolts (30) projecting upward to the supporting plate (29). , (31) are being planted. The two types of stud bolts (30) and (31) are provided in this way in order to cope with the model change as described above.

Further, the guide member (23) is formed in a gutter shape and is inclined and attached to a frame or the like so that the nut (32) slides, and the upper end portion faces the nut feeder (22) or the conveyor from the nut feeder, and the lower end portion. Guide members (23)
A cylinder unit (33) with a pin protruding therein is mounted, and a delivery arm (35) which faces the delivery position and is reciprocally rotated within a range of about 180 ° by a motor (34) is arranged at the delivery position. The tip of (35) is a bifurcated part (36), and the cylinder unit (37) is attached to the bifurcated part (36) so that the pin (38) can be retracted into the bifurcated part by the operation of the cylinder unit (37). The nut (32) is held by the pin (38) projecting into the forked portion, and the held state of the nut (32) is released by the pin (38) coming out of the forked portion. In other words, the nut (32) sliding in the guide member (23) is temporarily stopped by the pin at the lower end of the guide member (23), and then the pin is retracted by the operation of the cylinder unit (33), so that The nut (32) goes into the tip of the delivery arm (35). Then, if the nut (32) is held by the pin (38) by the operation of the cylinder unit (37), the motor (34) is driven to rotate the arm (35) from the solid line position to the position indicated by the imaginary line. , Deliver the nut (32) to the nut receiving pin (27) or (28) of the index table (17).

Next, a wheel mounting method using the wheel mounting device having the above-described structure will be described below.

First, if the index table (17) is rotated 90 ° each time the delivery arm (35) reciprocates once, and all the nut receiving pins (27) or (28) hold the nuts (32) ... Drive the motor (21) to move the carriage (16) to the third position.
Move it to the right in the figure and move it to the index table (17).
Position the nut directly above the nut runner (10).

Next, the vertical cylinder unit (24) in FIG.
Is operated to raise the lifting plate (25) and the nuts (32) held by the nut receiving pins (27) or (28) of the index table are moved to the nut runner (10) as shown in FIG.
Insert it into the socket (10a) from below. Then, the inserted nut (32) is attracted to the magnet in the socket (10a).

After that, the index table (17) once descends and then moves to the left in FIG. 6 together with the transport carriage (16),
Guide member (23) connected to the nut feeder (22) again
Located directly below, receives new nuts. Figure 8 (a)
In (1), the wheel (43) is moved below the nut runner (10) that has received the nut in the above procedure by a conveyor (not shown), and is sandwiched by the wheel holding members (11) and (11).

Next, by running the machine base (6) on the rail (7) as shown by the arrow and raising the lifter (41) as shown by the arrow, the correction member (12) faces the hub (5).

From the state shown in FIG. 8 (b), the machine base (6) is further moved to the right as shown by the arrow to correct the cutting angle and the vehicle width direction position of the hub (5) by the correction member (12). After the correction, the machine base (6) is retracted in preparation for the next operation as indicated by the arrow.

In Fig. 9, the downward nutrunner (10) is
Turn 90 ° as shown by the arrow to make it horizontal. Then, as shown by the arrow, the machine base (6) is moved to the right to bring the wheel (43) into contact with the hub (5), and the nut runner (10) is rotated to screw the nut onto the hub bolt (5a). With this wheels (43)
Complete installation.

Thereafter, a movement opposite to the arrow is carried out, and a rotation opposite to the arrow is carried out to restore the state of FIG.

Here, the drive of each motor and each cylinder unit is controlled by a controller.

In the above, when the number of hub bolts is four, the following forms occur when the torque is detected for each of the four nuts. The torques related to the four nuts are all normal, the torques related to the four nuts are all abnormal, or one or more is normal and one or more is abnormal. In the case of the above (all normal), the carrier trolley faces the nut supply device to the nut runner to supply the nut, and continues the normal tightening work. In the case of (abnormality in all) above, 4
Since there is a possibility that the individual wheels are not attached, stop the tightening work and take measures. In the above case (or not), the carrier causes the nut ejector to face the nut runner based on the signal. In this case, although the vehicle is temporarily fixed, all four wheels are attached to the vehicle body, so that the vehicle body assembly work is continued. In particular,
The tightening torque of each nut runner (10) is detected by a detection means (not shown), and this detected value is input to the control device. If all the tightening torques of the nut runners (10) ... have not reached the specified values, tighten the nut runners (10) again to remove the nut runners (1
If at least one of 0) has reached a predetermined tightening torque, the robot (9) is rotated and moved to return the nut runners (10) to the nut receiving position shown in FIG.

At this time, if even one of the nut runners (10) does not reach the predetermined tightening torque, the nut runner (32) remains in the socket (10a) of the nut runner (10). There is a possibility that Therefore, under the condition that even one of the nut runners (10) has reached the predetermined tightening torque, and even one of the nut runners (10) has not reached the predetermined tightening torque, Follow the steps to install the wheels.

That is, the index table (1
All of the nut receiving pins (27) or (28) in 7) have nuts (3
After holding 2), move the carrier (16) to the right and place the stud bolt (30) of the discharge device (18) directly under the socket (10a) of the nut runner (10) as shown in FIG. ) Or (31) and then the cylinder unit (24) is driven to drive the lifting plate (25) and the support plate (2).
9) and raise the stud bolt (30) or (31) into the socket (10a) of the nut runner (10).
After this, the nut runner (10) is driven. Then, when the nut (32) remains in the socket (10a), the nut (32) is screwed onto the stud bolt (30) or (31). Then, by driving the cylinder unit (24) to lower the lifting plate (25) and the support plate (29), the nut (32) together with the stud bolt (30) or (31) can be pulled out from the socket (10a). Be done.

After that, by driving the motor (21), the index table (17) holding the new nut (32) is positioned directly below the nut runner (10), and the socket (10a) of the nut runner (10) is placed. A new nut (32) is supplied, and thereafter, the nut (32) is fastened to the hub bolt (5a) and the wheel (43) is mounted to the hub (5) in the same procedure as described above.

Note that the nut (32) screwed onto the stud bolt (30) or (31) and pulled out is removed by applying a known means.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, if even one of the plurality of nut runners reaches the predetermined tightening torque, the vehicle body is conveyed to the next step, so that the wheel mounting line is The probability of a stoppage is greatly reduced, and for the nuts left in the socket of the nut runner due to improper tightening, a nut discharge device is attached to the nut supply device. Since the nut in the socket can be discharged in the work path that does not change so much, many effects such as reduction in work efficiency and delay in cycle time are exhibited.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an automatic wheel mounting device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same device, FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view of a nut feeding device, and FIG. 4 is a plan view of the nut feeding device. 5, FIG. 5 is a view in the Z direction of FIG. 3, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are side views similar to FIG. 3 for explaining the action, and FIG. 8 and FIG. It is the front view demonstrated. In the drawing, (1) is a vehicle body, (5) is a hub, (5a) is a hub bolt, (9) is a robot, (10) is a nut runner,
(10a) is a socket, (15) is a nut feeder, (16)
Is a carriage, (17) is an index table, (18) is a nut discharging device, (22) is a nut feeder, (27),
(28) is a nut receiving pin, (30) and (31) are stud bolts, (32) is a nut, and (43) is a wheel.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A nut feeder supplies a plurality of nuts to a nut supply device, and the nut supply device supplies the nuts to respective sockets of a plurality of nut runners, and the nut runners form the nuts into hub bolts of a vehicle body. When the wheel is mounted on the hub by screwing it in, the tightening torque detecting means detects the tightening torque, and if it is defective, the nut remaining in the socket of the nut runner is discharged by the nut discharging device. In the mounting device, both the nut supply device and the nut discharge device are placed on the carrier truck that moves between the nut feeder and the nut runner, and the nut supply is performed if the tightening torque is normal for all the nut runners. Move the carrier until the device reaches the nut runner, and tighten the torque on one or more nut runners. If it is good, the carrier is moved until the nut discharging device faces the nut runner to discharge the remaining nuts, and at least one of the plurality of nuts is tightened to the hub bolt with a predetermined tightening torque. If there is, an automatic wheel attachment device that moves the vehicle body to the next step.