JP2849268B2 - Numerical controller with tool sorting function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a numerical controller for controlling a numerically controlled machine tool provided with an automatic tool changer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic tool changer (hereinafter referred to as ATC) for automatically performing tool change, when a tool is set in a pot, a pot number and a tool number are often the same. However, the order of the tools used in the part program is not limited to the order from the first, so that the movement of the ATC magazine in response to the tool call command wastes. In particular, in the case of an ATC having no exchange arm, the tool mounted on the main spindle is returned and then the ATC magazine is operated to the pot position of the next tool. Will happen. Therefore, in order to avoid this inconvenience, a method has been adopted in which the machining program is analyzed by a numerical control device to check the order of use of the tools, and prior to machining, the arrangement of the tools on the tool magazine is rearranged in the order of use. ing.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional numerical control device having a tool rearranging function. An example of the operation of the tool rearranging control will be described with reference to FIG. The tool rearrangement mode determining unit 1 determines whether or not the mode is the tool rearrangement mode, and if the mode is the tool rearrangement mode, sends the determination result RM to the part program reading / analyzing unit 2. The part program reading / analyzing unit 2 that has received the determination result RM reads and analyzes the part program PP from the part program storage unit 10 and sends the tool preparation command information TPI and the tool exchange command information TCI to the tool command storage unit 3. . The tool command storage unit 3 stores the information TPI and TCI from the part program reading / analyzing unit 2 in the order in which they are received, and sends the tool preparation command data TPD and the tool exchange command data TCD to the command order rearranging unit 4 in the same order. .

[0004] The command order rearranging section 4 arranges the tools in the pot in ascending order of the tools,
The AD is sent to the optimal arrangement storage unit 5. Placement data TA
Upon receiving D, the optimal arrangement storage unit 5 creates and stores a pot-tool correspondence table GTB. Next, the pot data comparison unit 7 reads the correspondence table PTB indicating the current arrangement of tools on the pot in the ATC from the pot / tool correspondence table storage unit 6,
Compared with the pot / tool correspondence table GTB of the optimum arrangement storage unit 5, if the arrangement of the tools is not equal, the tool rearrangement command TA
C is sent to the tool rearrangement control unit 8. Then, the tool rearrangement control section 8 outputs a tool storage command to the numerically controlled machine tool based on the tool rearrangement command TAC, and rearranges the tools on the pot of the ATC magazine in the order of use.

[0005]

The above-mentioned conventional tool rearranging method is effective in the case of a part program in which one tool is used only once. However, in the case of a part program in which one tool is called many times, it is simply used. There is a drawback that the ATC useless operation cannot be eliminated only by arranging the tools in the order of the commands. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to automatically rearrange the arrangement of tools on a pot in an optimal state in consideration of machining using the same tool many times. Another object of the present invention is to provide a numerical controller having a tool rearranging function.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a numerical control device for controlling a numerically controlled machine tool having an ATC, and an object of the present invention is to determine whether or not a tool rearrangement mode is set. Means, analysis means for reading and analyzing a pre-stored part program if the determination result of the determination means is a tool rearrangement mode, receiving tool preparation command information and tool replacement command information from the analysis means,
First storage means for storing in the order of receipt, receiving tool preparation command data and tool replacement command data from the first storage means, counting all combinations of two tool preparation commands before and after tool replacement, and From a tool having a large number of commands and a command issued in an earlier order, calculating means for obtaining an optimal arrangement for sequentially arranging the tools in adjacent pots, receiving the optimal arrangement of the tools from the arithmetic means, creating a pot-tool correspondence table, and storing the table. A second storage unit for storing the current pot and tool correspondence table of the automatic tool changer, and a pot data of the second storage unit and the third storage unit. A comparison means for transmitting a tool rearrangement command so that the optimum arrangement is obtained if the tools on the pot are not equal, and the automatic tool is received by the tool rearrangement command received from the comparison means. Is achieved by providing a automatic sorting control means the tool on pot conversion device.

[0007]

According to the present invention, in consideration of machining using the same tool many times, the tools set separately on the pot are automatically replaced with the optimal arrangement, so that the ATC magazine is wasted. Operation stops.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a numerical control apparatus having a tool rearranging function according to the present invention in correspondence with FIG. 5. In FIG. An operation unit 9 is added. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the tool rearrangement control by the apparatus of the present invention. The operation example of the tool rearrangement control will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, the tool rearrangement mode determination unit 1 determines whether the mode is the tool rearrangement mode or the normal processing mode (step S1). If the mode is the normal processing mode, normal processing is performed (step S2).
The process ends. In the case of the tool rearrangement mode, the part program reading / analyzing unit 2 reads and analyzes the part program PP from the part program storage unit 10 (step S3), and stores the tool preparation command information TPI and the tool exchange command information TCI in the tool command storage. Send it to unit 3.

The tool command storage unit 3 stores these pieces of information in the order in which they are received, and sends the tool preparation command data TPD and the tool exchange command data TCD in the same order to the reordering unit 9 in the order of the number of combinations. The operation up to this point is the same as the conventional one. Next, the rearrangement operation unit 9 sorts the tool preparation command data TPD and the tool exchange command data T
T commands are arranged in the order of use based on the CD (step S
4) Check all combinations of the two T commands before and after the tool change sequence and their number (step S5), arrange them next to each other in the order of the most frequently used combinations, and optimally store the optimal arrangement data BTAD. It is sent to the section 5 (step S6), and the optimally arranged pot / tool correspondence table BGTB is created by the optimally arranged storage section 5 (step S7).

The pot data comparing unit 7 reads the current pot / tool correspondence table PTB read from the pot / tool correspondence table storage unit 6 and the optimally arranged pot / tool correspondence table BGTB.
The tool numbers of the same pot are compared (step S8), and if they match, the next pot is checked (step S9). If they do not match, the tool of the pot is moved to an empty pot (step S10), the tool to be set in the pot is searched from the pot / tool correspondence table BGTB of the optimal arrangement, and the tool rearrangement command TAC is controlled by the tool rearrangement control. The tool is sent to the unit 8, and the tool is moved to the pot in the ATC magazine (step S11). In this tool replacement process, the current pot / tool correspondence status PTB 'after the replacement has been completed.
To the pot / tool correspondence table P in the pot / tool correspondence table storage unit 6.
Reflect on TB. Then, the processes from step S8 to step S11 are performed for all the pots, and when all the pots have been completed (step S12), all the processes are completed.

As shown in FIG. 4, for example, a tool rearrangement command by the operator is issued by providing a function key or the like on a CRT panel, and then the process of the above-described flowchart is executed by a start button.
In the example of FIG. 4, when the [F1] key is pressed, a tool rearrangement mode is set, and a message is displayed at the top of the CRT to call the operator's attention. In the tool rearranging step, at least one empty pot is required. Therefore, if there is no empty pot, the operator must secure at least one empty pot in advance. In this case, after the automatic replacement of the tools, the operator should insert the tools to be put into the empty pot secured by checking the pot / tool correspondence table. If the tool position of the first tool command is not changed and the tool is replaced with the tool of the second tool command based on the pot, the number of tool changes can be reduced by one.

Next, a specific example of the tool rearrangement operation will be described using an example of the part program shown in FIG. "010" in the figure is an example of a part program, and a tool exchange command (M06) is 11 in the part program "010".
It is assumed that there are times and the tool magazine has six pots as a simple example. In this example, as a combination of T commands before and after M06, as shown in A of the same figure, (T1-T2) (T2-T3) (T3-T4) (T4-T2) (T2-T5) (T5- T1) (T1−T5) (T5−T2) (T2−T5) (T5−T6), and these are divided into combinations and the number of combinations is counted.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 1B, (T1-T2): once (T2-T3): once (T3-T4): once (T2-T4): once (T2-T4) T5): 3 times (T1-T5): 2 times (T5-T6): 1 time, and the position determination order is determined in the order in which the number of times is large and the command is issued earlier.
As shown in the first position: (T2-T5) second position: (T1-T5) third position: (T1-T2) fourth position: (T2-T3) fifth position: (T3-T4) sixth position: (T2) -T4) 7th place: (T5-T6). In this order, the tools are arranged next to each other from the first pot.

[0014] First, (T2-T5) is set to T2 in the first pot.
And place T5 in the 2nd pot. Next, (T1-T5)
Puts T5 in the second pot because it is already placed in the second pot, and puts T1 in the third pot that is closest and free from T5. Next, (T1-T2) is left as it is because both are already placed. In this way, place the tools in order, and if they cannot be placed next to each other, place them at the nearest place with an empty pot. This operation is performed for all combinations.

Here, the distance between the tools shown in D of FIG. 1 is obtained by checking how far the tools are apart in each combination and summing up all the combinations, and the arrangement method-1 is the method of the present invention. This is an example of how they are arranged. The operation of the ATC magazine can indicate the distance between tools by multiplying the number of combinations. Arrangement-2 is an example in which tools are arranged in a magazine in the order of commands according to a conventional method. In this example, if the same tool is commanded twice or more, the second and subsequent commands are deleted, so that T1 → T2 → T3 → T4 → T5 →
It will be T6 and we will arrange from the first pot in this order,
As a result, since the distance between tools is not taken into account, the total movement distance is 19, which indicates that the operation is 1.5 times as large as the arrangement method-1.

[0016]

As described above, according to the numerical controller having the tool rearranging function of the present invention, by adding a simple logic, it is possible to automatically arrange the tools to reduce the ATC time compared to the conventional one. The operation time of the ATC magazine can be shortened. Therefore, the processing efficiency is increased, and the processing time can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a numerical control device having a tool rearranging function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of tool rearrangement control by the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a tool rearranging operation by the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for instructing a tool rearrangement mode.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional numerical control device having a tool rearranging function.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Combination order sorting operation unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a numerical control device for controlling a numerical control machining function provided with an automatic tool changer, a judging means for judging whether or not a tool rearranging mode is provided, and a judgment result of the judging means being in a tool rearranging mode. Analysis means for reading and analyzing a part program stored in advance if present; first storage means for receiving tool preparation command information and tool exchange command information from the analysis means and storing them in the order received; Receiving the tool preparation command data and the tool change command data from the means, counting all combinations of the two tool preparation commands before and after the tool change, and starting with a tool having a large number of combinations and in the order in which the command was issued earlier, to the next pot. A second calculating means for obtaining the optimum arrangement of the tools from the calculating means for obtaining an optimum arrangement for sequentially arranging the tools, and creating and storing a correspondence table between the pot and the tool; Comparing the pot data of the second storage means and the third storage means with a third storage means for storing a current pot and tool correspondence table of the automatic tool changer; If the tools on the pot are not equal, the comparison means for sending a tool rearrangement command so as to obtain the optimum arrangement, and the tools on the pot of the automatic tool changer are automatically turned on by the tool rearrangement command received from the comparison means. And a control means for rearranging the tools.