JP2668718B2 - Automatic weather strip assembly system for automobiles - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic assembling system for an automobile weatherstrip, and more particularly to a system for assembling a door inner opening weatherstrip or the like to an automobile body flange unattended. It is a thing.

2. Description of the Related Art In the process of assembling a weather strip for automobiles to a body flange in a conventional automobile assembly line, a worker is placed on the line side of the outfitting line that conveys the body using a slat conveyor, and this worker is After passing through the desired weather strip and removing one from the box,
A method of manually loading a predetermined body flange is generally adopted.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, when a work vehicle continues manual work such as loading a weather strip from a line side of an outfitting line to a body flange, local work fatigue occurs on a finger or the like, and Continuing the same operation in a state where the operation fatigue has occurred may cause variation in the result of loading the weatherstrip. Due to such variations, there is a possibility that the original function of the weather strip may not be sufficiently exerted, and inconvenience may occur, for example, where water leaks may occur. In addition, the conventional manual loading of the weather strip also has a drawback that a relatively large number of steps and time are required.

From such a background, it has been desired to eliminate the disadvantages and difficulties of loading the weatherstrip into the body flange by the above-mentioned conventional manual operation. Therefore, the present invention provides an automobile which does not require the manual operation by the operator. The purpose is to provide an automatic web strip assembly system.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is installed so as to be independently movable in parallel with an outfitting line in which a body for assembling a weather strip is being conveyed. , A robot having a replaceable arm for a work tool, and a carrying box containing a large number of weather strips in a state in which the position and posture of only one terminal are aligned, is supplied to a predetermined position, A weatherstrip supply device for supplying a weatherstrip for assembly to the robot from a box, a robot hand attached to the arm of the robot, and taking out and hanging the weatherstrips one by one from the return box, Correct the twist of the suspended weather strip by moving the attitude correction roller from top to bottom A weather strip posture correction device, a temporary clamp mechanism for clamping the upper two points of the weather strip whose posture has been corrected, and a robot hand attached to the arm of the robot in exchange for a robot hand. The weather is temporarily clamped by the temporary clamp mechanism. An assembly guide roller that clamps and receives the strip and assembles the conveyed weather strip from the end to the body flange while the robot that starts traveling and catches up with the body to be assembled and synchronously travels. An automatic weatherstrip assembly system for an automobile, comprising: a tool.

According to the means of the present invention described above, when the body for assembling the weather strip is conveyed on the outfitting line,
A robot hand, which is attached to a robot as a work tool, picks up and hangs one weatherstrip, which is accommodated in a large number in the weatherstrip supply device, with the position and posture of only one end aligned in a return box.
This weather strip is moved to a weather strip posture correcting device by a robot in a state where one terminal is clamped and suspended, and the weather strip posture correcting device moves the posture correcting roller from above to below to thereby remove the weather strip. The twist is corrected for posture. Thereafter, the upper two points of the weather strip are clamped by the temporary clamp mechanism, and during this time, the weather strip is released from the robot hand by the temporary clamp mechanism by releasing the clasp of the weather strip.

Then, in the robot, the tool for work is exchanged from the robot hand to the assembly guide roller tool, and the assembly guide roller tool clamps the weather strip again between two points, so that the weather strip is removed from the temporary clamping mechanism. To receive. After that, the robot starts traveling parallel to the outfitting line with the weatherstrip clamped, catches up with the body to be mounted on the outfitting line, and synchronizes with the body to travel along with the mounting guide. The operation of the roller tool attaches the weather strip to the body flange from the end.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a weather strip assembling process in an outfitting line. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a robot equipped with a working arm, 2 denotes an outfitting slat conveyor for body transport, and 3 denotes a work. It is a man conveyor for staff.

The body 4 to which the weather strip is attached is
It is placed on the outfitting slat conveyor 2 and sequentially conveyed from left to right in the figure. On both sides of the outfitting slat conveyor 2, man conveyors 3 are installed. Is mounted on the body flange (the robot above the outfitting slat conveyor is not shown). The robot 1 is installed so as to be capable of independent reciprocating traveling independently of the outfitting line, that is, in parallel with the outfitting slat conveyor 2. Further, the work arm 1a 'provided on the robot 1 can be attached by exchanging a plurality of work tools, and therefore can cope with a plurality of different works.

Reference numeral 5 is a weather strip supply device. This device supplies a large number of returnable boxes 6 in a state in which only one end of the weatherstrip is aligned in position and posture to a predetermined position on the line side, and the robot 1 uses the returnable boxes 6 to remove the weatherstrips. It is possible to take out one by one. The weather strip supply device 5 of FIG. 1 is configured so that the returnable box 6 is supplied near the end of the self-propelled range of the robot 1, that is, upstream of the self-propelled range of the robot 1 in the body transport direction (left side in FIG. 1). Are located.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a hand tool, which is attached to the end of the arm 1a 'of the robot 1 as shown in FIG. Carry out the work while it is suspended. The hand tool 7 is a work tool that can be arbitrarily replaced and attached to the arm 1a '.

Reference numeral 9 is a weather strip posture correction device,
A posture correcting roller 10 for correcting the posture of the nice weather strip 8 suspended by the hand tool 7, a position setting air cylinder 11 for moving the posture correcting roller 10 to a position where the weather strip 8 is suspended, and A posture correction air cylinder 12 for correcting the posture of the weather strip 8 by moving the posture correction roller 10 along the weather strip 8 from above to below.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a temporary clamping mechanism, which is a pair of upper and lower clamp hands 14 and 14 'for temporarily clamping two points near the upper end of the weather strip 8 whose posture is corrected by the weather strip posture correcting device 9 described above. And temporary clamp air cylinders 15, 15 'for moving the clamp hands 14, 14' to the position where the weather strip 8 is suspended.

The assembling guide roller indicated by reference numeral 16 is provided on an assembling guide roller tool 17 which is attached to the tip of the arm 1a 'of the robot 1 in exchange for the hand tool 7, and is provided with a weather strip guide roller 16a, 16a ', an insertion roller 16b, and a pressing roller 16c. The assembling guide roller tool 17 is a work tool that is replaced with the hand tool 7 that has been released from the clamp when the weather strip 8 is completely clamped by the temporary clamp mechanism 13. As shown in FIG. 3, the assembly guide roller 16 inserts the weatherstrip guide rollers 16a, 16a 'into the groove 8a of the weatherstrip 8 so that the temporary clamping mechanism 13 can remove the weatherstrip 8 during the temporary clamping. It is clamped and received by the guide rollers 16a, 16a 'and the insertion roller 16b, and the body flange 2 is received by the weather strip guide rollers 16a, 16a'.
The insertion roller 16b inserts the weather strip 8 into the body flange 20 while guiding to the weather strip 8, and the pressing roller 16c presses the weather strip 8 inserted into the body flange 20 from outside, so that the weather strip 8 is pressed. Are securely assembled to the body flange 20.

Reference numeral 18 in the drawing is a traveling rail for the robot 1 to drive itself to catch up with the weather strip assembly target body 4 being conveyed through the outfitting line, and to travel in synchronization with the body 4, Similarly, reference numeral 19 is a work platform,
A is a support for installing the attitude correction air cylinder 12 of the weatherstrip attitude correction device, and B is a support for installing the temporary clamp air cylinders 15 and 15 'of the temporary clamp mechanism 13.

Hereinafter, an operation of assembling a weather strip consisting of one cycle by the automotive weather strip automatic assembling system having the above-described configuration will be described in the order of steps.

By the way, when the weatherstrip automatic assembly work is started, the robot 1 is stopped at the initial position near the left end portion of the traveling rail 18 (upstream side in the transport direction of the body 4), and the hand tool 7 is attached to the tip portion thereof. Attached arm 1a '
Are oriented in the direction of the weatherstrip supply device 5. Further, in the weather strip supply device 5, a returnable box 6 accommodating a large number of weather strips 8 is supplied to a predetermined position on the line side, that is, near the left end of the traveling rail 18. It should be noted that, when the returnable box 6 becomes empty by repeating the cycle of the automatic assembling work of the weather strip 8 described later many times, a new one containing a large number of weather strips is supplied to a predetermined position. Has become.

When the outfitting slat conveyor 2 is operated in the above-described state and the transportation of the body 4 to which the weather strip is attached is started, first, the robot 1 is activated and one end of the weather strip 8 is operated by the hand tool 7. The part is clamped, and only one piece is taken out from the return box 6 and suspended. But,
The weather strip 8 is simply housed in the returnable box 6 with the position and posture of one terminal aligned, and
In order to facilitate the subsequent assembling work, it is necessary to subsequently correct the twist of the suspended weather strip 8 by the weather strip posture correcting device 9.

The posture of the weather strip 8 was corrected by rotating the arm of the robot 1 about 90 degrees in the direction from 1a 'to 1a "shown in FIG. After that, the posture correction roller 10 of the weatherstrip posture correction device 9 is moved downward from above along the weatherstrip 8. The posture correction roller 10 is moved left and right by the operation of the position setting air cylinder 11. At the same time, it can be moved in the vertical direction by the operation of the attitude correction air cylinder 12.

When the attitude correction of the weather strip 8 is completed, the temporary clamp mechanism 13 is operated, so that the temporary clamp hands 14, 14 '
Clamp points. The temporary clamp hands 14 and 14 'use the temporary clamp air cylinders 15 and 15' as drive sources, respectively. When the clamping of this temporary clamping mechanism 13 is completed,
The hand tool 7 of the robot 1 suspending the weather strip 8 releases the clamp. And robot 1
Arm 1a starts moving toward the tool exchange place where the assembly guide roller tool 17 is placed, separates from the weather strip 8, removes the hand tool 7 and places it in a predetermined position, and then installs it. The guide roller tool 17 is attached and the tool exchange is completed.

Arm 1a, which has completed the tool exchange, has a temporary clamp mechanism 13
As a result, the weather strip 8 is moved again to the position where it is suspended and returned, and the weather strip 8 is clamped by the assembling guide roller tool 17 between the two points of the temporary clamp hands 14, 14 '. Then, almost at the same time when the clamping with the assembly guide roller tool 17 is completed,
The temporary clamp hands 14, 14 ′ are released from the weather strip 8 by releasing the clamps.

The above-mentioned clamp by the assembly guide roller tool 17 is performed by the weatherstrip guide rollers 16a, 16a 'and the insertion roller 16b inserted into the groove 8a of the weatherstrip 8. The robot 1 clamping the weather strip 8 in this way starts self-propelled on the traveling rail 18 in the right direction (the body 4 transport direction), and catches up with the body 4 to be assembled which is being transported on the outfitting line. Later, it will run synchronously with Body 4. During this synchronous running, as shown in FIG. 3 (A), first, the weatherstrip guide rollers 16a, 16a 'of the assembly guide roller 16 are inserted into the body flange 20, and the assembly guide roller tool 17 is moved to the body flange. Then, the end of the weather strip 8 is inserted into the body flange 20 by the insertion roller 16b, and finally the weather strip 8 is pressed from the outside by the pressing roller 16c. The end of is firmly attached to the body flange 20. And
Robot 1 uses weatherstrip guide rollers 16a, 16
By applying a feeding operation along the body flange 20 to the assembly guide roller tool 17 using a'as a guide, as shown in FIGS. 3 (B), (C), (D), (E), and (F). As shown, the weather strip 8 is self-assembled from end to end to the body flange 20. In this way, when the assembly of one weather strip 8 is completed, the robot 1 is released from the synchronous traveling with the body 4, runs backward on the traveling rail 18, returns to the original position, and stops. And arm 1a
After replacing the assembling guide roller tool 17 with the hand tool 7, the arm 1a moves in the direction facing the first weatherstrip supply device 5, and one cycle of the system is completed.

In the above examples, the work of assembling the weather strip for automobiles to the body flange has been described, but the automatic assembly system of the present invention is a work of assembling other rubber parts or the like to the vehicle body, or Needless to say, it can also be used as a system for assembling fittings and the like.

As a result of the above, according to the automatic weatherstrip assembling system of the present invention, since the manual operation by the operator is eliminated,
There is no fear of causing local work fatigue of a finger or the like, and it is possible to assemble a weatherstrip without variation caused by the local work fatigue. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of water leaks caused by variations in weatherstrip assembly, and further, it is possible to reduce the number of assembly work steps and time by automation, and thus it is possible to improve productivity and safety. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an entire structure of an embodiment of an automatic weather strip assembling apparatus for a vehicle according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a main part of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams sequentially showing the progress of assembling a weather strip to a flange, wherein FIG. 7A is a diagram showing a state at the beginning of assembling, FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an assembling state of a flange corner, and FIG. (D) is an assembled state diagram of a flange obtuse angle corner portion, (E) is an assembled state diagram of a flange inclined surface,
(F) is a state diagram at the end of assembly. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Robot, 1a, 1a ', 1a "... Arm, 2 ... Outfitting slat conveyor, 3 ... Man conveyor, 4 ... Body, 5 ... Weather strip supply device, 6 ... Returnable box, 7 ... … Hand tools, 8… Weather strips,
8a …… groove, 9 …… weather strip posture correction device, 10
...... Attitude correction roller, 11 …… Position setting air cylinder, 12
...... Attitude correction air cylinder, 13 ...... Temporary clamp mechanism,
14,14 ′… Clamp hand, 15,15 ′… Temporary clamp air cylinder, 16… Assembly guide roller, 16a, 16a ′…
… Weather strip guide roller, 16b …… Insert roller, 16c …… Pressing roller, 17 …… Assembly guide roller tool, 18 …… Travel rail, 19 …… Work platform, 20 …… Body flange, A, B …… Prop.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A robot equipped with an arm capable of exchanging a working tool in parallel so that a body for assembling a weatherstrip can be independently moved in parallel with an outfitting line on which the body is transported, and one terminal. A weatherstrip supply device for supplying a returnable box containing a large number of weatherstrips to a predetermined position with the positions and orientations of the chisel being aligned, and for supplying a weatherstrip for assembly to the robot from the returnable box. A robot hand attached to the arm of the robot and taking out and hanging the weather strips one by one from the return box; and moving the posture correction roller from above to below by twisting the weather strip suspended by the robot hand. Weather strip posture correction device that corrects with A temporary clamp mechanism for clamping the upper two points of the lip and a robot hand attached to the arm of the robot in exchange for a robot hand. The temporary clamp mechanism clamps and receives the weather strip that is being temporarily clamped, and starts traveling. While the robot catches up with the body to be assembled and runs synchronously, it is equipped with an assembly guide roller tool that assembles the weather strip clamped and transported from the end to the body flange. Automatic weatherstrip assembly system for automobiles.