JP2539009B2 - Painting robot - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a coating robot, and in particular, it is used when there are many kinds of objects to be coated and the kind of paint supplied to a spray gun is frequently changed. It is a technique relating to a suitable paint color changing device.

“Prior Art” Conventionally, in the above-mentioned painting robot, a spray gun for ejecting paint is provided at the tip of the arm, and this spray gun is provided with a paint tube (common One tube) is connected.
The paint tube communicates with a switching device such as a color change valve, and one kind of paint selected by the switching operation of the switching device is supplied to the paint tube.

Further, the switching device is provided for several minutes according to the type of paint, and the switching device includes a paint supply tube, a compressed air tube for valve switching, and a cleaning liquid (thinner) supply tube for each type of paint. Consisting of 3
The tube is externally connected.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the coating robot configured as described above, a large number of tubes such as a paint supply tube, a valve switching compressed air tube, and a cleaning liquid supply tube are externally connected to the switching device. Therefore, when the arm is rotated during the coating process, these tubes swing around the arm and hinder the smooth rotation of the arm, so that the efficient coating process cannot be performed. I had a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and even when the number of tubes to be connected to the switching device is increased by increasing the types of paints to be applied, the rotation of the arm is prevented. It is an object of the present invention to provide a painting robot that maintains its performance at a certain level and improves its coating treatment efficiency.

"Means for Solving the Problems" In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a spraying robot attached to the tip of an arm is used to apply a coating treatment to a coating object, Provided with a paint switching valve that connects one of a plurality of paint supply tubes to which a plurality of paints are respectively supplied and a cleaning liquid supply tube to which a thinner as a cleaning liquid is supplied to a common tube that selectively communicates with a spray gun. The paint supply tube and the cleaning liquid supply tube connected to the paint switching valve are arranged over the entire peripheral surface of the arm and along the length direction of the arm.

[Operation] According to the present invention, the paint supply tube and the cleaning liquid supply tube connected to the paint switching valve are arranged on the entire circumferential surface of the arm and along the length direction of the arm. When the arm is rotated, the tubes do not swing around the arm.

"Embodiment" An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, FIG. 1 shows an industrial robot 2 having a spray gun 1 attached to its tip, and a paint switching valve 3 mounted on this industrial robot 2.

The industrial robot 2 is provided rotatably about an axis (a) perpendicular to the base 4, and rotatably about two axes (b) and (c) parallel and horizontal to each other. An arm 5 and a wrist mechanism 6 provided at the tip of the arm 5 and having the spray gun 1 attached to the tip thereof.
The nozzle unit (not shown) of the spray gun 1 located at the tip of the wrist mechanism 5 is directed in an arbitrary direction by the combination of the rotation around (C) and the rotation operation of the wrist mechanism 5.

Next, the paint switching valve 3 arranged near the rear side of the spray gun 1 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the paint switching valve 3 is provided with a fixed plate 7 fixed to the arm 5, a rotatably provided around the arm 5, and the fixed plate 7. And a rotating rotary disk 8 that slides, and four systems of paint supply tubes for supplying different types (colors) of paint to the inlet side connection end provided on the latter rotary disk 8.
9A to 9D (only 9A and 9B are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) are connected to a cleaning liquid supply tube 10 of one system for supplying thinner as a cleaning liquid, and are also provided on the former fixed plate 7. A common tube 11 for supplying the paint or thinner to the spray gun 1 is provided at the outlet-side connecting end.

Next, a configuration for selectively connecting one of the paint supply tubes 9A to 9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 to the common tube 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

Inside the rotating disk 8, the paint supply tube 9A
Flow paths 12A to 12D (only 12A is shown in FIG. 2) for transporting the coating material sent from the cleaning solution supply tube 10 to the cleaning solution supply tube 10.
13 are formed. Further, the flow path 13 of the thinner is
The four flow paths 13A to 13D (13A.
(Only 3B is shown).

Further, holes 12a to 12d and 13a to 13d, which are less than the flow channels 12A to 12D and 13A to 13D, are shown in FIG. 3 on the surface of the rotary disk 8 facing the fixed plate 7. Thus, they are arranged so as to be circular as a whole at regular intervals.

Further, at the ends of these channels 12A to 12D and 13A to 13D,
Ball valves 16-18 for closing holes 12a-12d, 13a-13d
((Not shown) is provided for each of the other five ball valves.

The ball valves 16 to 18 will be described. The ball valves 16 to 18 are, as shown in FIG.
a, a ball-shaped valve element 16A to 18A having a valve seat at the periphery of the holes 13a and 13b of the flow paths 13A and 13B, and the valve element 16A to 18A having a hole 12a.
・ Composed of compression springs 16B to 18B that press the 13a and 13b sides, and the valve elements 16A to 18A are pressed in the arrow (d) direction by a pressing member 19 provided on the fixed plate 7 side. In this case, a gap is formed between the holes 12a, 13a and 13b and the ball valves 16-18 are opened (see the ball valve 17 in FIG. 2). Then, by the pressing member 19, when the ball valves 16 to 18 are in the open state, the flow channels 12A to 12D and 13A to 13D are connected to the flow channel 20 provided inside the pressing member 19. It That is, the paint or thinner supplied from the paint supply tubes 9A to 9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 sequentially passes through the flow paths 12A to 12D, 13A to 13D and the flow path 20, and then the other end side of the fixed plate 7. It is adapted to be fed into the spray gun 1 at the tip of the wrist mechanism 6 via the common tube 11 connected to.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 21 is an O-ring to prevent leakage of paint or thinner when the flow paths 12A to 12D, 13A to 13D and the flow path 20 are connected. Has become.

Further, a reference numeral 22 is a fixing member for preventing the paint supply tubes 9A to 9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 communicating with the paint switching valve 3 from swinging by the operation of the arm 5. That is, the fixing member 22 causes the paint supply tubes 9A to 9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 to be arranged on the entire circumferential surface of the arm 5 and along the length direction of the arm 5, whereby the arm Paint supply tubes 9A to 9D by rotating 5 and cleaning liquid supply tube
It is designed to prevent the rocking of 10.

Next, the switching operation of the paint switching valve 3 configured as described above, in particular, the paint supplied by the paint supply tube 9A (flow path 12A) is changed to the paint supplied by the paint supply tube 9B (12B). The switching operation in the case of doing will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. In FIG. 2, the valve body 16A of the ball valve 16 is held in a state of being pressed by the pressing member 19 and moved in the direction of arrow (d), and the coating material from the coating material supply tube 9A is flow channel 12A, flow channel 12A. 20 shows the state of being supplied to the spray gun 1 via the common tube 11 in order.

(1) From the state shown in FIG. 3 (where the flow channels 12A and 20 are in communication), the rotary disk 8 is rotated in the direction of the arrow (e) in FIG. The flow path on the rotating disk 8 side
The flow passage 20, the common tube 11, and the spray gun 1 are washed with the thinner supplied through the flow passage 13B.

In the process of rotating the rotary disk 8 in the arrow (e) direction, the pressing member 19 causes the valve body 16 of the ball valve 16 to move.
After being separated from A, the valve body 16A is urged by the compression spring 16B to close the hole 12, and then the pressing member 19 separates the valve body 18A of the ball valve 18 which is next approaching from the hole 13b. ,
A gap is formed between the valve body 18A and the hole 13b so that the thinner supplied through the flow passage 13B is fed into the flow passage 20.

(2) Flow path 20, common tube 11, spray gun 1
When the washing is completed, the rotary disk 8 is further rotated in the direction of the arrow (e) in FIG. 3 to connect the flow path 20 on the fixed plate 7 side to the flow path 12B on the rotary disk 8 side. As a result, the thinner supplied to the spray gun 1 has the following types (colors)
It is changed to the paint.

In this case, the operation of the ball valve 18 when the rotary disk 8 is rotated is the same as the operation described in (1), and the description thereof will be simplified.

By rotating the rotary disk 8 relative to the fixed plate 7 in this manner, it is possible to efficiently and sequentially change the type of paint while sandwiching the cleaning process.

Further, when increasing the types of paint to be supplied to the spray gun 1, it is sufficient to simply add the number of paint supply tubes (9A to 9D) corresponding to the kind of paint to the rotary disk 8 of the paint switching valve 3. As a result, even if a large number of paints can be supplied to the paint switching valve, the number of tubes (cleaning liquid supply tube, paint supply tube) as in the conventional case does not increase, and this allows the arm to operate. It is possible to obtain the effect that the swing performance of No. 5 is prevented from being deteriorated and the durability thereof is improved. In the present embodiment, the maximum number of types of paint is 4, but the internal flow paths (12A-12D, 13A-1
By using the rotating disk 8 in which a large amount of 3D) is formed, it is naturally possible to supply many kinds of coating materials while sequentially changing them.

Further, as described above, each time the type of paint supplied to the spray gun 1 is increased, it is not necessary to sequentially arrange additional switching devices as in the conventional case, and as a result, the switching device (paint switching valve 3). The weight can be reduced, and in this respect also, the swing performance of the arm 5 can be improved.

Further, since the paint switching valve 3 is arranged near the tip position of the arm 5 behind the spray gun 1, the length of the common tube 11 connecting the paint switching valve 3 and the spray gun 1 can be shortened, As a result, when the type of paint is changed, the cleaning time of the common tube can be shortened, and the amount of thinner used as the cleaning liquid can be reduced.

Further, since the rotary disk 8 constituting the paint switching valve 3 is provided around the arm 5, it has good balance, and accordingly, it is necessary to provide a balancing device such as a counter balance spring. Absent.

Also, a paint supply tube 9A connected to the paint switching valve 3
9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 are arranged on the entire circumferential surface of the arm 5 and along the length direction of the arm 5, so that the paint supply tube 9A is rotated when the arm 5 is rotated during the coating process. ~ 9D and the cleaning liquid supply tube 10 is prevented from swinging around the arm 5, thereby,
Even when the number of paints to be applied is increased and the number of tubes connected to the switching device is increased, the turning performance of the arm 5 can be maintained at a constant level.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Although the tubes 9A to 9D.10 between the fixing member 22 and the fixing member 22 are provided in a linear shape, the present invention is not limited to this, and the tubes are not pulled by the rotation of the rotary disk 8 (reciprocating motion within a certain range). As described above, the tube may be arranged in a coil shape or with a certain bending. Further, the rotation of the rotary disk 8 may be automatically performed by a driving means such as an air motor.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the paint supply tube and the cleaning liquid supply tube connected to the paint switching valve are provided on the entire circumferential surface of the arm and in the length direction of the arm. Since the tubes are arranged along the line, it is possible to prevent these tubes from swinging around the arm when the arm is rotated during the coating process, thereby increasing the types of paint to be applied to the switching device. Even when the number of tubes to be connected is increased, it is possible to obtain the effect that the rotation performance of the arm can be maintained at a constant level and the coating processing efficiency can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1 to 3 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a side view showing a positional relationship between an industrial robot and a paint switching valve, and FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG. 1 showing the internal structure of the paint switching valve, and FIG. 3 is a sectional front view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1 showing the paint switching valve. . 1 ... Spray gun, 2 ... Industrial robot, 3 ... Paint switching valve, 5 ... Arm, 9A-9D ... Paint supply tube, 10 ... Cleaning liquid supply tube, 11 ... Common tube.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A coating robot, wherein a spray gun attached to the tip of an arm is used to apply a coating process to a coating object, a plurality of coating material supply tubes to which a plurality of types of coating material are respectively supplied, and a cleaning liquid. Has a paint switching valve that selectively connects one of the cleaning liquid supply tubes to which a thinner is supplied to a common tube that communicates with a spray gun, and a paint supply tube and a cleaning liquid supply tube connected to the paint switching valve. Over the entire circumference of the arm, and
A coating robot, wherein the arm is arranged along the length direction of the arm.