JP3092504B2 - Product assembly equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product assembling apparatus for holding and fixing a plurality of workpieces at predetermined positions in a production process of an automobile or the like and connecting the workpieces by a welding robot. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, welding robots and the like have been widely used in automobile production processes. In the welding robot operation, it is necessary to provide a plurality of works to the welding robot in a state of being held in a predetermined positional relationship. The product assembling device is used for that purpose. Then, with respect to the product assembling apparatus, an operator places the work at a predetermined position and grips the workpiece by gripping means. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a conventional product assembling apparatus. The product assembling apparatus 101 is located at the center, the welding robot 110 is at the right side, and the worker P is at the left side of the product assembling apparatus 101. The product assembling apparatus 101 includes a fixed base 105, a rotating shaft 104 rotatably held on the fixed base 105, and a rotating plate 102 that rotates together with the rotating shaft 104. A plurality of cylinder holding devices (clamps, not shown) for detachably holding the plurality of works 103 are fixed to the rotating plate 102.

[0003] The welding robot 110 includes a fixed base 112.
And a robot body 1 rotatably provided on a fixed base
13, a robot arm 114 slidably and rotatably attached to a robot body 113, and a robot arm 1
14 and a spot welding device 111 attached to the tip of the device. The spot welding apparatus 111 can spot-weld a workpiece made of two superposed iron plates at an arbitrary position by the operation of the welding robot 110. Although not shown, a work transfer device attached to a vertical moving device that slides in the vertical direction is attached to the upper part of the product assembling device 101.

Next, the operation of the welding system having the above configuration will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process sequence of the welding system, and FIG. 7 shows a time schedule of one cycle. In the manual setting step of S101, the rotating plate 102 of the product assembling apparatus 101 is moved by the worker P so that the worker P can easily perform the work as shown by a solid line 102 in the figure.
Stopped at a slightly diagonal position from. At this time, the cylinder holding device for the rotating plate 102 is in an open state. The worker P fixes a plurality of workpieces 103, for example, the workpieces 103 constituting parts of the side plate of the wagon car, at predetermined positions one by one. That is, one work 103 is positioned at a predetermined position, and the work 103 is held by operating a cylinder holding device for holding the work 103 by a foot switch (not shown). By repeating this, all necessary works 103 are fixed to the rotating plate 102.

Next, in the jig rotating step of S102, the worker P moves away from the product assembling apparatus 101 and presses a work completion switch. Thereby, the product assembling apparatus 10
The first rotating plate 102 is rotated about 150 degrees clockwise by the rotating shaft 104, and stops at the position 102a in the figure. At this time, the work 103 is at the position of 103a in the figure. Next, at this position, in the robot spot welding process of S103, the welding robot 110 sequentially performs spot welding devices 111 based on data that has been previously taught.
Is moved to the spot welding position of the work 103, and the work 103 is welded and integrated. When all the welding operations are completed, in the jig rotating step of S104, the spot welding apparatus 111 is retracted, and the rotating shaft 104 of the product assembling apparatus 101 rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise, and the rotating plate 10 is rotated.
2 stops at a position 102b in the figure. At this time, the work is held upward. Next, in the work removal step of S105, a work transfer device (not shown)
The work 103 is moved to a position indicated by a solid line 103 above the product assembling apparatus 101 in the figure, and transported to the next step. Then, in the jig rotating step of S106, the rotating shaft 104 is returned to the initial position.

[0006]

A conventional product assembling apparatus 1
01 had the following problems. That is, in the work welding work of the wagon car, since the number of works to be attached by the worker P is large, there is a problem that the manual setting process takes time, the cycle time of the entire process is 3 minutes or more, and the production efficiency is poor. . In addition, while the robot is performing the welding operation, the worker P has no free time when the preparation of the next hand set is completed, and the work efficiency of the worker P is poor.

An object of the present invention is to provide a product assembling apparatus capable of improving the production efficiency of the welding process and the work efficiency of the operator P in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a product assembling apparatus comprising: (1) a set position for setting a work and a work receiving position;
A transfer table that moves in the front-rear direction between the transfer position and the transfer position, a first rotation shaft provided on the transfer table at a right angle to the movement direction, and a gripper that detachably grips the work on one side.
Provided, rotates together with the first rotation axis, is a surface having a gripper
Standing position that is horizontal and inversion inverted from the standing position
Respectively position possess a first gripping means for stopping, moving stand
Is in the set position and the first gripping means is in the upright position.
The work is set in a certain state, and then the work is set.
Transfer the transfer table with the first gripping means turned upside down
And preset device for advancing to a position, and (2) pre-setting device opposite to the fixing base has, on the fixed base, a second rotary shaft provided substantially and at the same height as parallel to the first rotation axis, Wa <br /> fixture for fixing the over click to a Jo Tokoro position includes on one side,
It rotates with the second rotating shaft, and the surface with the fixing jig
Facing the first gripping means on the moving platform that stops at the transfer position
Position, and the fixture receives the work from the first gripping means.
The first position to take and fix and the position inverted from the first position
The second position where the workpiece can be machined and the fixing jig
The third position where the surface provided faces upward and the work can be carried out.
In is composed of a set apparatus and a second gripping means for stopping each of (3) set the workpiece to the first gripping means
In parallel with the processing of the workpiece fixed to the second gripping means.
It is characterized by performing. Further, the product assembling apparatus of the present invention, in the above apparatus, is located above the setting apparatus, is movable in a vertical direction, and receives a work from the setting apparatus after completion of the setting operation in the setting apparatus. It has a gripping means.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A product assembling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a welding system using the product assembling apparatus of the present invention. The product assembling apparatus 10 is located at the center, the welding robot 31 is at the right side, and the worker P is at the left side of the product assembling apparatus 10. A work transfer device 41 is provided above the product assembling device 10. Product assembly equipment 10
Is composed of a preset device 11 and a set device 21. The preset device 11 includes a base 14 and a base 1
4 is a movable platform 1 that can be moved in the front-back direction (left-right direction in the figure)
5, a first rotating shaft 12 provided rotatably in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the moving table 15, and a first holding plate 13 that rotates together with the first rotating shaft 12.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic structure of the first holding plate 13.
A plurality of cylinder arms 131 are attached to the first holding plate 13. Each cylinder arm 131 has
A positioning pin for positioning a plurality of works 16a to 16j indicated by broken lines in the drawing and a pneumatic cylinder 132 for holding the works 16a to 16j are attached. The setting device 21 includes a fixed base 23 and a fixed base 2
3 and a second gripping plate 24 that rotates together with the second rotary shaft 22. Similarly to the first holding plate 13, a plurality of pneumatic cylinders for detachably holding the plurality of works 16a to 16j are fixed to the second holding plate 24 as well.

The welding robot 31 includes a fixed base 34 and a robot body 33 rotatably provided on the fixed base 34.
And a robot arm 35 slidably and rotatably attached to the robot main body 33, and a spot welding device 32 attached to the tip of the robot arm 35. The spot welding device 32 can spot-weld the works 16a to 16j formed of two superposed iron plates at arbitrary positions by the operation of the welding robot 31. The work transfer device 41 includes a gantry 45 fixed to the ceiling and a slide device 46 attached to the gantry 45.
A vertical drive cylinder 42 slidable by a slide device 46; a vertical slide head 44 engaged with a rod end of the vertical drive cylinder 42;
4 includes a pair of guide rods 47 fixedly mounted on the guide rod 4, a guide member 43 for guiding the guide rods 47, and a pair of chucks 48 fixedly mounted on the vertical slide head 44.

Next, the operation of the welding system having the above configuration will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process sequence of the welding system, and FIG. 4 shows a time schedule of one cycle. A feature of the present invention is that the preset step S10 and the welding step S20 proceed in parallel. At the beginning,
The preset step S10 will be described. In the rotation step of S11, the first rotation shaft 12 of the preset device 11
Rotates, and the first gripping plate 13 stops at an angle of about 30 degrees with respect to the worker P, as shown by the solid line in FIG. The reason why the first holding plate 13 is inclined with respect to the worker P is to improve workability when setting the works 16a to 16j. In the work setting process of S12, the pneumatic cylinder 132 of the first holding plate 13 is in an open state. That is, the workpieces 16a to 16j can be placed on the first holding plate 13. The worker P fixes the works 16a to 16j, which are parts constituting the side plate of the wagon car, one by one at predetermined positions. That is, one work 1
6a is positioned at a predetermined position, and a pneumatic cylinder 132 for holding the work 16a is operated by a foot switch (not shown) to grip the work 16a. By repeating this, all necessary work 1
6a to 16j are temporarily fixed to the first holding plate 13.

Next, in the rotation step of the first gripping plate 13 in S13, the worker P moves away from the preset device 11 and presses a work completion switch. Thereby, the first gripping plate 13 of the preset device 11 is rotated about 150 degrees clockwise by the first rotating shaft 12. Next, in the sliding step of S14, the preset device 11 is moved forward (to the right in the drawing) as viewed from the operator P on the base 14. Then, as described later in detail, the work 16a
To 16j are transferred to the setting device 21. By being delivered, the works 16a to 16j are at the position 16B in the drawing. After the delivery of the works 16a to 16j is completed,
In step 15, the preset device 11
It is moved in the front direction (left direction in the figure) as viewed from the operator P upward.

Next, the welding step S20 will be described.
In the rotation process of the second gripping plate 24 in S21, the second gripping plate 24 is rotated 180 degrees by the second rotating shaft 22 while holding the works 16a to 16j.
6 comes to the position of 16C shown by the solid line in the figure. In this position,
In the spot welding process by the robot in S22, the welding robot 31 sequentially switches the spot welding devices 32 on the workpieces 16a to 16a based on the data that has been previously taught.
16j is moved to the spot welding position of the workpiece 16a.
-16j are integrated by welding. When all the welding operations are completed, in the rotation step of the second holding plate 24 in S23, the spot welding device 32 is retracted, and the setting device 21
Is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, and the second gripping plate 24 stops at a substantially horizontal position 24C in the figure.
At this time, the integrated work 16 after the completion of the welding is held upward.

Next, in the work take-out step of S24, the up-down slide head 44 is lowered by driving the up-down drive cylinder 42 of the work transfer device 41, and the work 16 is gripped and held by the chuck 48. Then, the vertical drive cylinder 42 is driven again while holding the work 16 to return to the original state. Thereafter, the work 16 is moved by the slide device 46 in a direction perpendicular to the drawing, and the work 16 is transported to the next step. Next, in the rotation step of the second holding plate 24 in S25, the second rotation shaft 22 is rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees to return the workpieces 16a to 16j from the preset device 11 to a receivable state.

Next, the work clamping step of S26 will be described. This step corresponds to S1 in the preset step S10.
This is performed at the same time as the slide releasing step of No. 4. That is, the first holding plate 13 holding the works 16a to 16j is moved by the movable base 15 to a place where the second holding plate 24 is in a standby state in which the works 16a to 16j can be received. Then, the second gripping plate 24 drives the pneumatic cylinder to clamp the works 16a to 16j, and at the same time, the first gripping plate 13 drives the pneumatic cylinder 132 again to unclamp the work 16. Thereby, the work 16a ~
16j is moved to the second gripping plate 24 while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship. After the preset device 11 returns to the worker P side in the slide return step of S15, the second holding plate 24 holding the works 16a to 16j executes the rotation step of the second holding plate 24 of S21. According to the steps described above, as is apparent from the time schedule shown in FIG.
Since the spot welding process by the robot No. 2 was performed in parallel, the cycle time of one cycle could be reduced to 2 minutes or less. The cycle time, which conventionally took three minutes or more, can be reduced by 30% or more.

As described above in detail, according to the product assembling apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, (1) the moving table 15 that moves in the front-rear direction on the base 14 and the moving direction on the moving table 15 A first rotating shaft 12 provided at a right angle and a work 16
a preset device 11 having a first gripping plate 13 that detachably holds a to 16j and rotates together with a first rotating shaft 12
And (2) the fixed base 23 facing the preset device 11.
Receiving the workpieces 16a to 16j from the first holding plate 13 and the second rotating shaft 22 provided on the fixed base 23 at substantially the same height and in parallel with the first rotating shaft 12, and Since the setting device 21 includes the second holding plate 24 having a fixing jig for fixing, the welding robot 31 performs welding work on the workpieces 16a to 16j held by the setting device 21. At the same time, the worker P moves the workpieces 16a to 16
Since j can be set, the cycle time of the entire welding system can be reduced by 30% or more.

Further, the product assembling apparatus 10 of the embodiment
In the above apparatus, the work 1 is located above the setting device 21 and is movable in the vertical direction.
Since the work 16 has the chuck 48 as the third gripping means for receiving the work 6, the work 16 after the completion of the welding process can be quickly taken out, so that the worker P is performing the work setting process of S12. After the completion of the welding work in S22, the work removal process in S24 can be performed, which is effective in shortening the cycle time.

The product assembling apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the one shown in the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof. For example, in the present embodiment, the supply of the workpiece to the welding process by the welding robot 31 has been described. is there. Further, in the present embodiment, the work setting process by the worker P has been described, but the same applies even when this work is mechanized.

[0020]

As described in detail above, according to the product assembling apparatus of the present invention, (1) a set for setting a work.
A movable table that moves in the front-rear direction between the position and the transfer position for transferring the work, a first rotating shaft provided on the movable table at right angles to the moving direction, and detachably grips the work.
The gripper provided on one side, and rotates together with the first rotation axis, bunch
Standing position in which the surface with the holder is horizontal and whether it is in the standing position
Possess a first gripping means for stopping respectively inverted position obtained by al reversed, there movable carriage is in the set position, and the first gripping
The work is set with the means in the upright position.
In the state where the first gripping means on which the work is set is inverted
A preset device for moving the movable table to the transfer position ; (2) a fixed table facing the preset device; and a second fixed table provided on the fixed table at substantially the same height as and parallel to the first rotation axis. two a rotating shaft, comprising a fixing jig for fixing the word over click to a Jo Tokoro position on one side, and rotates together with the second rotating shaft, fixed Osamu
First on a carriage where the surface with the fixture stops at the transfer position
The fixing jig is located at a position facing the gripping means and the first gripping hand is
The first position to receive and fix the work from the step, and the first position
Second position where the workpiece can be machined
The work with the position and the surface with the fixing jig facing upwards
A setting device having a second gripper that stops at a third position where it can be carried out , and (3) a first gripper.
The work set on the step is transferred to the work fixed to the second gripping means.
Are performed in parallel with processing over click, when the welding robot relative held in the set device work is performing welding operations, to set the work to workers is first gripping means in parallel Therefore, the cycle time of the entire welding system can be reduced by 30% or more.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a product assembly apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a drawing showing an overall configuration of a welding system in which is used.

FIG. 2 is a first gripping plate 1 for holding works 16a to 16j.
3 is a plan view showing the structure of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the product assembling apparatus 10.

FIG. 4 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the product assembling apparatus 10;

FIG. 5 is a drawing showing an overall configuration of a conventional welding system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a conventional product assembly apparatus 101.

FIG. 7 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the conventional product assembling apparatus 101.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Preset apparatus 12 1st rotating shaft 13 1st holding plate 14 base 15 movable table 16 work 21 setting device 22 2nd rotating shaft 23 fixed base 24 second holding plate 31 welding robot 32 spot welding device 33 robot main body 34 fixed base 35 Robot arm 41 Work transfer device 42 Vertical drive cylinder 44 Vertical slide head 46 Slide device 48 Chuck

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A setting position for setting a work and a work.
A transfer table that moves in the front-rear direction between the transfer position and a transfer position, a first rotating shaft provided on the transfer table at right angles to the moving direction, and a gripper that detachably grips the work.
Provided on one side, rotated together with the first rotation axis , the
An upright position in which the surface provided with the gripping tool is oriented sideways;
Respectively inverted position by inverting the position possess a first gripping means for stopping the moving base is in the set position, or
In the state where the first holding means is in the upright position,
Set the first gripping means on which the workpiece is set
In the inverted state, move the movable table to the transfer position.
And preset device for a fixing base which faces the preset device, on the fixed base, and a second rotary shaft which is provided substantially the same height and parallel to the first rotation axis, the constant a word over click Tokoro comprising a fixing jig for fixing the position on one side, and rotates together with the second rotary shaft,
The surface with the fixing jig stops at the transfer position
A position facing the first gripping means on the moving table;
The fixing jig receives the work from the first gripping means.
A first position to be fixed, and inverted from the first position
A second position where the workpiece can be machined and the fixed position
The surface with the jig faces upward so that the work can be carried out.
Is composed of a set apparatus and a second gripping means for stopping each in three positions, a set of workpieces to the first gripping means, said second gripping
A product assembling apparatus, wherein the processing is performed in parallel with the processing of a workpiece fixed to the means .