JP3019347B2 - Gear tooth surface alignment device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a gear tooth surface alignment apparatus which is applied when performing chamfering or finishing on a workpiece on which gear cutting or tooth surface formation has been performed. About.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 8 shows an example of the gear cutting machine. In this gear cutting machine, the work 2 is positioned by the positioning jig 1, and then the rough cutting operation is performed by the cutter 3.
It is applied to

For example, when a hypoid pinion or a spiral bevel pinion is formed, teeth as shown in FIG.

After the rough tooth cutting, the cutter 3 is replaced to perform chamfering or finishing. In this case, it is necessary to align the tooth surface with the gear cutting machine. The position of the tooth surface is adjusted using the touch sensor 4 shown in the figure.

The touch sensor 4 is supported by the work holder 1a of the positioning jig 1 shown in FIG. 8, and is moved toward and away from the work 2 by an appropriate position adjusting means.

First, the alignment of the tooth surfaces when chamfering the acute angle portion 2a shown by hatching in FIG. 10 will be described.

In this case, the work 2 is manually rotated while being visually observed so that the tooth space 2c of the work 2 is positioned below the touch sensor 4 indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. Thereafter, the touch sensor 4 is manually lowered by a preset amount from the position indicated by the dashed line (preset known position). As a result, the contact 4a of the sensor 4 is moved to a predetermined position in the tooth groove 2c of the work 2. Is positioned.

Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the contact 4a
The work 2 is manually rotated in the direction of the arrow (see FIG. 11) to an angular position where it comes into contact with 2d, and then the work 2 is locked by hydraulic pressure or the like.

Whether or not the contact 4a has contacted the tooth surface 2d is determined based on the output signal of the sensor 4.

With the above operation, the alignment of the tooth surfaces for performing the chamfering process is completed. Then, the touch sensor 4 is retracted to the position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG.
Is performed on the individual teeth.

In addition, when performing the chamfering of the other acute angle portion 2a shown by hatching in FIG. 10, the tooth surface alignment operation according to the above is performed.

Next, a description will be given of the tooth surface alignment at the time of finishing.

In the case of finishing the tooth surface 2e on one side indicated by hatching in FIG. 13, an operation according to the tooth surface alignment operation at the time of chamfering the acute angle portion 2a is executed. That is,
After the positioning of the touch sensor 4 as shown in FIG. 11, the work 2 is rotated until the tooth surface 2d contacts the contact 4a of the sensor 4.

Further, the remaining one-side tooth surface 2d shown by hatching in FIG.
In the case of performing the finishing processing, after positioning the sensor 4,
The tooth surface 2e ', which has already been finished, is the contact of the sensor 4.
The work 2 is rotated until it comes into contact with 4a.

The hatched portions shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 are allowances for finishing.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

As described above, when aligning the tooth surfaces, the contact 4a of the sensor 4 is made to enter the tooth groove 2c of the work 2, so that the work 2 is rotated before the contact 4a is made
The operation of positioning the sensor 4 on 2c is always executed.

However, the rotation operation of the work 2 is performed by the work 2
Is performed manually while visually observing the operation, it is extremely troublesome for an operator to perform such an operation in a narrow place every time the plurality of tooth surface alignment operations are performed. Further, as a result, the work efficiency of the chamfering and finishing is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a gear tooth surface alignment device that can automatically and quickly execute gear tooth surface alignment using simple means in view of such circumstances.

[Means for solving the problem]

Therefore, the present invention provides a proximity switch that detects a tooth tip of a gear, and a relative positional relationship between the proximity switch and the proximity switch so that the proximity switch is positioned to face a tooth groove of the gear when the proximity switch detects the tooth tip. Is set, a means for rotating the gear until the tooth tip of the gear is detected by the proximity switch, and after the tooth tip of the gear is detected, the touch sensor is directed toward the gear. Means for moving the gear into the tooth space, and means for rotating the gear until the touch sensor contacts the tooth surface of the gear and outputs an alignment completion signal.

[Action]

The proximity switch detects that the tooth space of the gear is located opposite to the touch sensor, and then advances the touch sensor toward the gear. Therefore, the touch sensor can reliably enter the tooth structure by a single movement operation. Then, when the tooth surface of the gear contacts the touch sensor due to the rotation of the gear, a positioning completion signal is output from the touch sensor.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the gear tooth surface alignment device according to the present invention includes a proximity switch 10, a touch sensor 20, and a mechanism 30 for positioning these.

The proximity switch 10 is of a type that detects a magnetic change in the vicinity of the front end face, and outputs an ON signal when metal exists near the front end face. And
The proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 are supported by a sensor holder 31 provided in a positioning mechanism 30.

Note that the tip of the touch sensor 20 is located slightly below the tip of the proximity switch 10.

On the front surface of the base 32 of the positioning mechanism 30, a servo motor 33 is provided.
The ball screw 34 rotated by is disposed, and the base end of the sensor holder 31 is screwed to the ball screw 34.

Therefore, when the ball screw 33 is rotated by the servo motor 34, the sensor holder 31 moves up and down while being guided by the base 32.

The sensor holder 31 has a slide means 31 for adjusting the distance between the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20.
f is provided, and the distance adjustment is performed by rotating the handle 31b.

The base 32 of the positioning mechanism 30 is fixedly arranged on the front surface of a work holder 1a provided on the positioning jig 1 of the gear cutting machine shown in FIG. When the workpiece 40 shown in FIG. 1 (for example, a hypoid pinion or a spiral bevel pinion), which has already been coarsely cut by the gear cutting machine, is mounted on the workpiece holder 1a, the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 are turned off. It is located facing the peripheral surface of the work 40.

FIG. 2 shows the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20.
2 illustrates a positional relationship between each tip and the work 40 in a plan view.

FIG. 3 shows a processing procedure executed when the tooth surface alignment method of the present invention is carried out, and this procedure is executed by the microprocessor 50 shown in FIG.

The position sensor 60 shown in FIG.
The position of the holder 31 is measured in response to the vertical movement of the 31, and for example, a potentiometer, an absolute encoder, or the like is applied.

An angle sensor 70 shown in the figure detects the rotation angle of the work 40, and an absolute encoder or the like is applied.

The output signals of the position sensor 60 and the angle sensor 70 and the output signals of the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 are all applied to the microprocessor 50.

As shown in FIG. 3, in this embodiment, first, the sensor holder 31 is lowered by a predetermined distance from a preset reference position by the operation of the servo motor 33 (step 101), whereby the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 are moved. Is lowered from the chain line position (reference position) in FIG. 7A to the solid line position. At this time, the tip of the proximity switch 10 is separated from the tip surface by a distance A enabling detection of the tip surface of the work 40, and the tip of the touch sensor 20 is separated by the distance B from the tip surface.

Note that the microprocessor 50 notifies the position sensor 60 that the sensor holder 31 has been lowered by the predetermined distance.
Check based on the output signal of

In the next step 102, the workpiece 40 is rotated at a low speed in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. In step 103, it is determined whether or not the proximity switch 10 has been turned on. If the determination result is YES, the rotation of the workpiece 40 is stopped in step 104.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 3B, the tip surface of the work 40 faces the tip surface of the proximity switch 10, and the contact 20a of the touch sensor 20 is positioned facing the tooth groove 40a of the work 40. You. FIG. 2 shows the positions of the distal end surfaces of the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 by P _A and P _B at this time.

The rotation of the work 40 is performed by the work rotation motor 80 shown in FIG.

In step 105, the sensor holder 31 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. As a result, an interval A-α is formed between the tip of the proximity switch 10 and the tip surface of the work 40, and the contact 20a of the touch sensor 20 is located in the tooth groove 40a of the work 40.

In the next step 106, as shown in FIG.
The work 40 is rotated until one tooth surface 40b of the work 40 contacts the contact 20a.

FIG. 4 shows a detailed procedure of the contact recognition processing in step 106.

Assuming that Figure 5 position P ₁₀ and P ₁₄ is the position of the position and the contact 20a of the tooth surface 40b in FIG. 7, respectively (c), right rotation of the workpiece 40 from the state shown in FIG. (C) In this case, the tooth surface 40b approaches the contact 20a.

In FIG. 5, the movement locus of the tooth surface 40b is represented by a straight line.

In step 106A of FIG. 4, in the state of the phase 7 Figure (c) rotating the workpiece 40 at a relatively high speed, the process of fast forward at the speed V ₁₁ toward the tooth surface 40b in contact 20a is performed (See the thick arrow in FIG. 5).

Then, in the next step 106B, based on an output of the angle sensor 70 shown in FIG. 6, whether or not the tooth surface 40b has reached the position P ₁₁ shown in FIG. 5 is determined, the result of the determination Is NO, the fast-forward processing is continued.

When the arrival of the tooth surface 40b to the position P ₁₁ is determined in step 106B, the rotational speed of the workpiece 40 is reduced, the step 106C
Tooth surface 40b is further moved in the forward direction at normal feed speed V ₁₂ as shown in. (See the solid arrow in FIG. 1).

Position P ₁₂ and the position P ₁₅ shown in FIG. 5 is a pre-set position to define the range L ₁₁ of touch sensor 20 is expected to turn on, they stored in memory 90 of FIG. 6 Have been.

In the next step 106D, on the basis of the output of the front angle sensor 70, whether the tooth surface 40b has reached the position P ₁₂ is determined, if the determination result is YES, a step 106E
Movement of the tooth surface 40b of the above ordinary feed speed V ₁₂ is continued as shown in.

In step 106F, it is determined whether or not touch sensor 20 is ON only. When the ON operation of the sensor 20 is determined, the rotation of the work 40, that is, the movement of the tooth surface 40b is stopped, and the movement position P ₁₄ of the tooth surface 40b at the time of the ON is determined.
Is stored in the memory 90 as a provisional contact position as shown in FIG. 6 (FIG. 106G).

The memory 90 has a minimum distance L required for position measurement.
₁₂ are stored in advance, with the following steps 107H In the provisional contact position P ₁₄ subtracting the required minimum distance L _12, the first
Calculation for obtaining the fine speed movement start reference position P ₁₃ shown in the figure is executed.

In step 108I, the workpiece 40 is reversed and the tooth surface 40b
The usual feed speed V ₁₂ at the crawling speed movement start reference position P ₁₃
Backward movement towards the (first see one-dot chain line arrow in FIG. 5) is to process is performed, the tooth surface 40b of the backward movement to the position P ₁₃
Is reached until it is determined in step 106J.

The above retraction movement is performed in the usual feeding speed V _12. Further, the determination in step 106J is made based on the output of the angle sensor 70.

If tooth surfaces 40b at a position P ₁₃ is determined to have reached at step 106J, the tooth surface 40b as indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 5 is moved forward toward the touch sensor 20 at a small feed rate V ₁₃ (step 106k), this forward movement is continued until it is determined in step 106L that the touch sensor 20 is turned on.

Then, when the ON operation of the touch sensor 20 is determined in step 106L, the movement of the tooth surface 40b is stopped,
Based on the output of the angle sensor 70, the angle of the work 40 at the time of the above-mentioned ON is used as a formal contact position in the memory shown in FIG.
Stored in 90. (Step 106M).

Note that the common feed speed V ₁₂ is assumed the tooth surface 40b at a speed V ₁₂ is the said sensor also in contact with the touch sensor 20 is set to a size that does not damage, the minor-feeding speed V ₁₃ is a touch sensor 20 It is set appropriately based on the specifications and the required position recognition accuracy.

Then, the judgment result in step 106D is for the case where NO, the words will be described a case where the tooth surface 40b is moved between the position P ₁₁ to the position P _12.

In this case, the procedure moves to Step 106N. Then, in this step 106N, it is determined whether or not the touch sensor 20 has been turned on. If the determination result is NO, the procedure returns to step 106C. As a result, the on operation of the touch sensor 20 when the section of the tooth surface 40b extending to a position P ₁₂ from the position P ₁₁ which have moved movement is checked.

Then, the touch sensor in the interval P ₁₁ to P ₁₂ never normally touch sensor 20 is turned on, at any kana factor
20 turns on, and the result of step 106N is YE
In the case of S, the rotation of the work 40 is stopped in an emergency (step 1060) and the abnormality indicator shown in FIG.
An alarm signal is output to 91 (step 106P).

Note that an alarm lamp, a buzzer, or the like is used for the abnormality indicator 91.

On the other hand, if the decision result in the step 106F is NO, the procedure proceeds to the step 106Q. In step 106q, it is determined whether or not the tooth surface 40b has reached the position P ₁₅ is, procedure step when the result is NO
Returned to 106E.

Thus, on operation of the touch sensor in the interval L ₁₁ leading to the position P ₁₅ from the position P ₁₂ is chek. And if the touch sensor 20 at the same interval L ₁₁ is not turned on by some reason, that is, if the tooth surface 40b is the result of the judgment at step 106Q reaches the position P ₁₅ becomes YES, the workpiece 40 (Step 10) The process of emergency stopping the rotation of the motor and the process of outputting an alarm signal to the abnormality indicator 19 are executed.
60,106P).

When the processing of the step 106M is completed, that is, when the work 40 is rotated until the tooth surface 40b contacts the contact 20a as shown in FIG. 7D, step 10 shown in FIG.
At 7, the sensor holder 31 is raised to the preset reference position. Of course, the elevation of the holder 31 is performed by the operation of the servo motor 33.

With the above, the positioning of the tooth surface 40b is completed, so that, for example, the tooth surface 40c of the work 40 shown in FIG. 7 (d) is finished by the cutter 3 of the gear cutting machine shown in FIG. Then, each time the work 40 is rotated by an angle corresponding to the pitch interval between the teeth, the finishing of the tooth surface 40c is performed.

When finishing the tooth surface 40b of the work 40,
In other words, even when the chamfering process is performed on the acute angle portions of the teeth of the workpiece 40 (the portions corresponding to the hatched portions in FIG. 9), the processing according to the alignment processing of the tooth surface 40b is executed.

The adjustment of the allowance for the finishing position, that is, the adjustment of the tooth thickness is performed by changing the distance α shown in FIG. 7 (c).

In the above embodiment, the ball screw is
Although the position of the sensor holder 31 is changed by rotating the position 33, a cylinder operated by fluid pressure can be applied as the position changing actuator.

Further, in the above embodiment, the proximity switch 10 and the touch sensor 20 are moved integrally by the sensor holder 31.
Only the touch sensor 20 may be lowered from the state shown in FIG. 2B to the position shown in FIG.

Note that the tooth surface alignment method described in the above embodiment can be effectively applied not only to bevel gears but also to other gears such as cylindrical gears.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, the tooth groove of the gear is detected by the proximity switch, and the touch sensor is advanced toward the detected tooth groove. Therefore, the touch sensor can be reliably inserted into the tooth space by a single movement operation, and the efficiency and speed of the tooth surface alignment work can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a sensor positioning mechanism applied to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a positional relationship of a sensor with respect to a workpiece, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed procedure of the contact recognition process, FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an execution mode of the contact recognition process, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control system for executing the procedure of FIG. 4, FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a specific embodiment of tooth surface alignment to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. , FIG. 9 is a perspective view illustrating a gear which has been subjected to rough cutting, FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a chamfered portion, and FIGS. 11 and 12 are conventional tooth surface alignments. FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment, and FIGS. 13 and 14 are conceptual diagrams showing finishing positions. It is. 3 ... cutter, 10 ... proximity switch, 20 ... touch sensor, 30
... Positioning mechanism, 31 ... Sensor holder, 34 ... Servo motor, 40 ... Work, 40a ... Tooth groove, 40b, 40c ... Tooth surface, 50 ... Microprocessor.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A proximity switch for detecting a tooth tip of a gear, and a relative positional relationship between the proximity switch and the proximity switch such that the proximity switch is positioned to face a tooth groove of the gear when the proximity switch detects the tooth tip. A touch sensor in which is set, means for rotating the gear until the tip of the gear is detected by the proximity switch, and after the tip of the gear is detected, the touch sensor is directed toward the gear. Means for moving the gear to enter the tooth space, and means for rotating the gear until the touch sensor contacts the tooth surface of the gear and outputs a positioning completion signal. Tooth surface alignment device.