JP2598430B2 - Spare tire mounting equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION << Industrial Application Field >> The present invention relates to a spare tire mounting device provided in an automobile production line.

<< Conventional Technology >> Generally, in a vehicle assembly line, an operation of performing various outfitting while being transported while a vehicle body is supported by a transportation jig such as a hanger provided on a vehicle transportation conveyor such as a trolley conveyor is performed. In such a vehicle assembly line, the work of mounting a spare tire in a trunk room of a vehicle body or the like has conventionally been performed manually, but in recent years, in order to save labor and the like, the work has been automatically performed using a robot. A technique for performing the method has been proposed.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a spare tire mounting apparatus using such a robot. In FIG. 2, one tire mounting robot, 2 is an automobile, and 3 is a spare tire supply conveyor. The above-mentioned tire-mounted robot 1 is a teaching-playback type articulated robot. The spare tire 5 on the conveyor 3 is lifted at the tip of an arm 4 of the robot, and the spare tire 5 is stored in a spare tire storage section in a trunk room of the automobile 2. To be transported and mounted.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 6 denotes an optical sensor.
It is detected whether or not the trunk lid of the automobile is open. If the trunk lid is not open, a warning of occurrence of an abnormal situation is issued, and the detection result is transmitted to the control device 7 of the tire-mounted robot 1. Spare tire 5 held by arm 4 of tire mounting robot 1
Is discharged onto the conveyor 8. The worker 9 who noticed the warning and rushed to the car 2
Is opened, and the spare tire 5 on the escape conveyor 8 is manually mounted in the trunk room of the automobile 2. Therefore, even if an abnormal situation occurs in which the trunk lid is not opened, the vehicle-body transport conveyor and the tire-mounted robot 1 continue to move, thereby avoiding the inconvenience of completely stopping the assembly line.

The conventional spare tire mounting apparatus is generally configured as described above, but the following problems are pointed out in this apparatus.

<< Problems to be Solved by the Invention >> That is, the worker 9 who is active when the trunk lid is not opened, and is not always attached to the escape conveyor 8, so the warning that the trunk lid is not opened. If it takes too much time to drive to the escape conveyor 8 after noticing, the car 2 without the spare tire 5 is transported to the next process, or the spare tire 5 is full on the escape conveyor 8 and the tire is mounted. There is a possibility that a situation may occur in which the robot 1 and the spare tire supply conveyor 3 must be emergency stopped.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to effectively solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to minimize the possibility of an emergency stop of a spare tire mounting device.

<< Means for Solving the Problems >> In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a horizontal vehicle as a main production vehicle in which spare tires are mounted horizontally, and a spare tire mounted vertically. A laterally mounted tire mounting station and a vertically mounted tire mounting station are arranged in order from the upstream side to the downstream side of the mixed transport line where two types of vehicles, a vertical vehicle as a by-product vehicle, are mixed and transported. Setting, a tire-loading robot, a first tire supply passage for supplying tires to the tire-loading robot to the horizontal tire-loading station, detection means for detecting an abnormality in the horizontal tire-loading station, When the detecting means detects an abnormality, a relief conveyor for paying out the spare tire held by the tire-mounted robot is provided, respectively. A second tire supply passage is disposed on a side of the vertical tire loading station, and an upstream end of the second tire supply passage is connected to the first tire supply passage.
And a switching means for switching the flow of the tire to the first or second tire supply passage at this connection point, and providing a detection result of the abnormal state by the detection means. Based on the above, the switching means is switched to the second tire supply passage side, and the mounting of the tire on the laterally mounted vehicle is performed at the vertical tire mounting station.

<Operation> In the spare tire mounting device configured as described above, when an abnormal situation such as the trunk lid of the car is not opened at the laterally mounted tire mounting station, the detecting means detects the abnormal situation and switches the switching means. Since the first tire supply passage is switched to the second tire supply passage, there is no risk that the spare tire will be full on the escape conveyor, and the spare tire flowing into the second tire supply passage will be Workers stationed at the stationary tire loading station are immediately mounted by hand on vehicles with closed trunk lids, so that spare tires do not accumulate at both horizontal and vertical mounting stations, causing abnormal stoppage of the equipment. The risk is extremely reduced.

<< Embodiment >> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). FIG. 1 is a plan view of a spare tire mounting apparatus according to the present invention, and reference numeral 12 in the figure denotes a mixed transport line of an automobile. This mixed transport line 12 is a so-called horizontal vehicle 2a on which spare tires are mounted horizontally.
And two types of vehicles, so-called vertical vehicles 2b, on which spare tires are mounted vertically, are mixed and transported in a predetermined order according to a production plan. However, vertical vehicle 2b
Is actually much smaller than that of the horizontal vehicle 2a, and the vertical vehicle 2b is transported between the horizontal vehicles 2a. In the vehicles 2a and 2b to be transported, the trunk lid 22 is lifted in advance and the trunk room 24 in which the spare tire storage unit 23 is provided is opened. Further, the vehicles 2a, 2b are suspended in a state where they are accurately positioned in advance with respect to the hanger 25, and the positional deviation of the vehicles 2a, 2b with respect to the hanger 25 is not changed unless an impact or the like is applied to the vehicles 2a, 2b. It does not occur.

A laterally mounted tire mounting station 13 and a vertically mounted tire mounting station 14 are set in this order on the side of the mixing and conveying line 12 from the upstream side to the downstream side of the line 12. In the lateral tire loading station 13, the tire loading robot 1, the robot controller 26, the first tire supply passage 15, the detection means 16, and the relief conveyor 8 are provided. The first tire supply passage 15 has a function similar to that of the conventional spare tire supply conveyor 3, and is constituted by, for example, a roller conveyor.
In this embodiment, the detecting means 16 has a function similar to that of the conventional optical sensor 6, and is a trunk lid of the laterally mounted vehicle 2a.
This can be detected when 22 is not open. The detection means 16 may be constituted by an optical sensor,
Other sensors may be used.

The tire mounting robot 1 and the first tire supply passage 15 are configured in detail as shown in FIG. 1 (b). That is, the first tire supply passage 15 has, at its downstream end, a positioning gate portion 32 to which a spare tire 5 to be mounted is supplied, and a vehicle body conveyed from a tire loading portion (not shown) to the horizontal tire mounting station 13. A shooter section having an inclined roller section for feeding the spare tire 5 sent out in an order according to the specification of 14 to the positioning gate section 32
It consists of 34. The positioning gate section 32 is provided with two sets of positioning arm drive sections 36A and 36B having a pair of positioning arms 35A and 35B, and a detection switch 37 for detecting the presence or absence of the spare tire 5, and a shooter section. 34
Is provided with a pair of payout arms 38 for locking the spare tires 5 sequentially sent from the upstream side.

The tire-mounted robot 1 is a teaching playback type articulated robot that can perform a motion similar to the movement of the upper limb of a human, and a base 42 on which the arm 4 is fixed to a cart 41. The wrist 43 provided at the distal end of the arm 4 rotates around the axis of the arm 4 and in a direction orthogonal thereto. A boss 44 formed at the center of the spare tire 5 is provided at the tip of the list 43.
The chuck mechanism 45 is inserted into the boss 44 of the spare tire 5 and then expands to hold the spare tire 5. The operation mode such as the operation speed and operation path of the tire-mounted robot 1 is taught in advance manually or by numerical control, and the contents of the teaching are stored in the memory of the robot controller 26 for each vehicle type.

On the other hand, a downstream end 17a of the second tire supply passage 17 is provided on the side of the vertical tire loading station 14.
The second tire supply passage 17 is disposed substantially parallel to the mixing and conveying line 12, and an upstream end 17 b thereof is connected to a downstream side of the first tire supply passage 15. At this connection side, a switching plate 18 as switching means for changing the flow of the spare tire 5 is disposed rotatably about a fulcrum 19. In detail, when the switching plate 18 is at the position shown by the chain line in FIG. 1 (a), the spare tire 5 flows only through the first tire supply passage 15, but when it is at the position shown by the solid line, the spare tire 5 The first tire supply passage 15 flows to the second tire supply passage 17. The switching plate 18 is always in the position shown by the chain line in FIG.
When 16 detects an abnormal state (trunk lid 22 closed), it is configured to rotate to the position shown by the solid line based on the detection result.

The spare tire mounting device is configured as described above,
Normally, the switching plate 18 is at the position indicated by the chain line in FIG. 1A, and the spare tire 5 is supplied to the tire mounting robot 1 through the first tire supply passage 15. The tire-equipped robot 1 lifts the spare tire 5 at the downstream end of the first tire supply passage 15 with the arm 4 and lifts the spare room 5 of the laterally mounted vehicle 2a.
Into the spare tire storage section 23 in the inside.

On the other hand, a predetermined number of spare tires 5 are stored in advance in the second tire supply passage 17, and the worker 20 resident at the vertically mounted tire loading station 14 receives the second tire supply passage 17.
The spare tire at the downstream end 17a is manually loaded into the spare tire storage section of the vertically mounted vehicle 2b. It should be noted that loading such vertical tires is not impossible to make into a robot, but compared to loading horizontal tires, the number of joint axes of the robot increases and the robot itself becomes expensive and its control becomes difficult. Despite the complexity, there are no profitable benefits due to the extremely low production volume, so the loading of vertical tires is done manually. When the number of remaining spare tires 5 in the second tire supply passage 17 decreases, an appropriate amount of the spare tire 5 is refilled into the second tire supply passage 17 by a temporary switching operation of the switching plate 18.

Next, when the horizontal vehicle 2a with the trunk lid 22 closed is conveyed to the horizontal tire mounting station 13, the detecting means 16 detects this and the detection result is used to drive the robot controller 26 and the switching plate 18. Transmitted to the department. As a result, the tire mounting robot 1 releases the spare tire 5 held by the arm 4 onto the conveyor 8 and switches the switching plate 18 to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. To the tire supply passage 17. Therefore, the spare tire 5 does not stay in the first tire supply passage 15. Note that the horizontal vehicle 2a with the trunk lid 22 closed passes through the horizontal tire mounting station 13 without the spare tire 5 being loaded, and the vertical tire mounting station
At 14, the spare tire 5 is manually charged by the worker 20. Thus, the trunk lid 22 of the horizontal vehicle 2a
Even if an abnormal situation occurs in which the spare tire 5 is not mounted, the spare tire 5 is immediately loaded into the vehicle 2a by the worker 20 resident at the vertically mounted tire loading station 14. There is no risk that the vehicle 2a will be transported to the next process. After the horizontal vehicle 2a with the trunk lid 22 closed has passed the horizontal tire mounting station 13, the switching plate 18 returns to the original position shown by the chain line again.

As described above, one embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above embodiment, the trunk lid 22 of the horizontal vehicle 2a is regarded as an abnormal situation at the horizontal tire mounting station 13.
Although the closed state is exemplified, this abnormal situation widely includes a state in which the tire mounting robot 1 cannot mount the spare tire 5, and for example, the horizontal vehicle 2a and the hanger 25 that transports the vehicle 2a are displaced. Therefore, the case where the spare tire 5 cannot be mounted is also included in the above-mentioned abnormal situation, and a detecting means capable of detecting such an abnormal situation may be provided.

Further, in the above embodiment, the switching plate 18 is used as the switching means for changing the flow of the tire. However, it is a matter of course that other switching means such as inclining the tire conveying surface in the vertical direction may be used.

<< Effects of the Invention >> As described above, the present invention switches the flow of the spare tire flowing through the first tire supply passage to the second tire supply passage side by switching the switching means when an abnormality occurs in the lateral tire mounting station. To change it to
The number of spare tires to be paid out by the tire-mounted robot is limited to a small number, which can prevent the spare tires paid out on the escape conveyor from becoming full and prevent the tire-mounted robot from emergency stopping. The occurrence rate of unsatisfactory situation can be greatly reduced, while the spare tire flowing in the second tire supply passage is immediately and manually mounted on the vehicle by a worker resident at the downstream end of the second passage. Therefore, there is no stagnation in the flow of spare tires, so that it is possible to avoid an emergency stop of the first and second tire supply passages, and to stabilize the operation rate of the vehicle manufacturing line in conjunction with the continuous operation of the tire-mounted robot. Can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 (a) is a plan view of a tire mounting device according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 (b) is a partially enlarged plan view of FIG. 1 (a), and FIG. 2 is a conventional tire mounting device. It is a schematic plan view of. 1 ... Robot with tires 2a ... Horizontal vehicle 2b ... Vertical vehicle 5 ... Spare tire 8 ... Escape conveyor 12 ... Mixed transport line 13 ... Horizontal tire loading station 14 ... Vertical tire loading station 15 First tire supply passage 16 Detection means 17 Second tire supply passage 18 Switching plate (switching means)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A horizontal vehicle as a main production vehicle in which spare tires are mounted horizontally and a vertical vehicle as a sub-production vehicle in which spare tires are mounted vertically are mixed. A laterally mounted tire mounting station and a vertically mounted tire mounting station are sequentially set from the upstream side to the downstream side of the mixed transfer line to be conveyed, and the tire mounting robot and the above A first tire supply passage for supplying tires to the tire-mounted robot, detection means for detecting an abnormality in the laterally mounted tire-loading station, and a spare tire held by the tire-mounted robot when the detection means detects an abnormality. And a second conveyor for supplying a second tire to the side of the vertical tire loading station. And disposed above the upstream end of the second tire supply passage connected to the downstream side of the first tire supply passage, the first flow of the tire to the connection location or second
Switching means for switching to the tire supply passage, and switching the switching means to the second tire supply passage based on the result of detection of the abnormal state by the detection means, and mounting the tire on the laterally mounted vehicle. At the above-described vertical tire mounting station.