JP3477721B2 - Side automatic coating equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic side-coating apparatus for coating a side surface of an automobile body, which is capable of automatically changing a coating color, and more particularly to a method for automatically changing a coating color. The present invention relates to an automatic side-coating device capable of reducing the consumption of a color-change paint in the apparatus. 2. Description of the Related Art The coating operation of a body outer panel of an automobile is performed by an automatic coating apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-81457, for example. FIGS. 4 and 5 show an example of a conventional automatic coating apparatus. 4 and 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a vehicle body. The vehicle body 1 has a conveyor 2
Is transported at a predetermined speed. In the vicinity of the conveyor 2, an automatic side coating device 5 for coating the side outer plate 1a of the vehicle body 1 is arranged. [0004] The side surface automatic coating apparatus 5 has an elevating part 6 provided with an elevating arm 7 which moves vertically along the side outer plate 1a of the vehicle body 1. At the tip of the lifting arm 7,
An atomizing head 8 of a rotary atomizing electrostatic coating machine that jets paint toward the vehicle body 1 is attached. At a position adjacent to the elevating unit 6, a color changing unit 9 for switching a coating color of the paint supplied to the atomizing head 8 of the rotary atomizing electrostatic coating machine is provided. The color changing unit 9 is attached to the upper surface of a gantry 11 fixed to the floor 10 of the painting booth. The color changing section 9 includes the atomizing head 8 from the color changing section 9.
Is connected to a discharge amount control unit 12 that controls the flow rate of the paint supplied to the printer. Atomization head 8 raised and lowered by lifting unit 6
The discharge amount control device 12 fixed to the floor surface 10 is connected via a paint hose 13. Thus, one end of the paint hose 13, the atomizing head of the rotary atomizing electrostatic coating machine 8
It moves up and down in accordance with the ascending and descending operation of.
The length of the paint hose 13 is set to, for example, about 3 m. [0006] However, the automatic side coating apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 has the following problems. If the paint color of the vehicle body to be painted next is different from the paint color of the vehicle body currently being painted, the paint color exists from the color changing section 9 to the atomizing head 8 of the rotary atomizing electrostatic painting machine. It is necessary to discharge the paint that is generated. The paint is discharged by compressed air, and thereafter, the paint supply passage from the color changing section 9 to the atomizing head 8 of the rotary atomizing electrostatic coating machine is cleaned by thinner. The discharged color change paint and thinner are discarded. In the automatic side-coating apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, since the elevating unit 6 and the color changing unit 9 are separately provided, it is necessary to increase the length of the paint hose 13 and to increase the color. The amount of paint existing between the replacement unit 9 and the atomizing head 8 of the rotary atomizing electrostatic coating machine increases. Therefore, the consumption of paint for color change increases. Conventionally, when a paint hose with an outer diameter of 6 mm is used, about 4
0 cc of paint is wasted. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic side-coating apparatus capable of reducing the consumption of a color change paint at the time of changing a paint color. According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic side-coating apparatus according to the present invention, comprising: a traveling rail extending in a vertical direction; an elevating means for moving on the traveling rail to move up and down; It is attached to the elevating means and cooperates with the elevating means.
A multi-joint arm that can swing up and down with respect to the elevating means, and a coating device attached to a wrist located at the tip of the multi-joint arm and ejects paint toward the side surface of the object to be coated, wherein not attached to an articulated arm, the lift attached to the lifting means mounting said articulated arm
And lifting with means, color changing means for switching the paint color of the paint supplied to the painting device, said not attached to the articulated arm, with mounted in the elevating means the elevating means attaching the articulated arm Ascending and descending , a discharge amount control means for controlling a supply flow rate of the paint whose coating color has been switched by the color changing means to the coating device, and a paint hose connecting the discharge amount control means and the coating device, Consisting of In the side-surface automatic coating apparatus constructed as described above, since the color changing means and the discharge amount control means are provided on the elevating means which moves on the traveling rail, the color changing means and the discharge amount control means are provided. When, both the painting device to be attached to the articulated arm will move simultaneously in the vertical direction by lifting means. Therefore, the positional relationship between the coating device, the color changing means and the discharge amount control means will be changed only by the movement of the multi-joint arm, and the length of the coating hose is determined by considering only the movement amount of the multi-joint arm. Get better. As described above, when determining the length of the paint hose, it is not necessary to consider the amount of movement of the lifting / lowering means at all, and it is possible to make the length of the paint hose significantly shorter than before. Therefore, the amount of the paint existing between the color changing means and the coating device can be reduced, and the consumption of the color changing paint at the time of the color change is reduced. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an automatic side coating apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 21 denotes a traveling rail arranged in a painting booth. The running rail 21 extends in the vertical direction, and both ends are supported by a frame (not shown). The traveling rail 21 has a lifting means 31
Is installed. The elevating means 31 moves on the traveling rail 21 at a predetermined speed. Lifting means 3
1 is controlled by control means (not shown). The base 32 of the lifting means 31 (the lifting means 3
1), an articulated arm 41 that can swing with respect to the elevating means 31 is attached. Articulated arm 41
Is composed of a painting robot controlled by control means (not shown) in this embodiment. Articulated arm 41
Is a first arm 42, a second arm 43, a wrist 44
It is composed of The first arm 42 of the articulated arm 41 is
It is attached to the base 32 of the elevating means 31. First
Arm 42 is swingable by an angle theta ₁ to the width direction of the vehicle body 20 as the object to be coated. Angle θ
₁ is + 23 ° to the center axis A of the running rail 21
It is set to -23 °. In the present embodiment, the length of the first arm 42 is set to 900 mm. The second arm 43 is attached to the tip of the first arm 42. The second arm 43 is
The arm 42 swings by an angle θ _{2 with} respect to the arm 42. The angle θ ₂ is set at + 45 ° to + 75 ° with respect to the central axis B of the first arm 42. In the present embodiment, the length of the second arm 43 is set to 700 mm. The wrist 44 is attached to the tip of the second arm 43. The wrist 44 is connected to the second arm 43.
Can be swung by an angle θ _{3 with} respect to. Angle θ ₃
Is −90 ° to the central axis C of the second arm 43.
It is set to + 30 °. The movements of the first arm 42, the second arm 43, and the wrist 44 are controlled by commands from control means (not shown). The wrist 44 has a bracket 4
A coating device 51 is attached via the reference numeral 5. Painter 51
Is for spraying paint toward the side plate 18a of the vehicle body 18 as the article to be coated conveyed by the conveyor 100, and in this embodiment, is constituted by an atomizing head of an electrostatic coating machine. The atomizing head, which is the coating device 51, is rotated at a high speed by an air motor. The paint is discharged from the center of the inside of the atomization head, and the discharged paint is discharged at a high speed from the atomization head and atomized. A negative electrostatic voltage is charged on the atomized paint by the external electrode. A bracket 55 (a part of the lifting / lowering means 31) is attached to the base 32 of the lifting / lowering means 31.
The bracket 55 is arranged to be inclined with respect to the base portion 32. The bracket 55 is provided with a color changing means 61 for switching the coating color of the paint supplied to the coating device 51. The color changing means 61 has a plurality of air switching valves 62, and the electromagnetic switching valve 62 corresponding to the paint color is opened by a command from a control means (not shown). The color change means 61 is connected to a discharge amount control means 71 for controlling the flow rate of the paint whose coating color has been switched by the color change means 61. The discharge amount control means 71 includes, for example, a discharge amount control mechanism using an air operation regulator,
It is composed of a discharge amount control mechanism using a gear pump. The discharge amount control means 71 is connected to the coating device 51 via a coating hose 81. As a result, the coating color is switched by the color changing means 61 and the ejection amount control means 7
The paint whose flow rate is controlled by 1 is supplied to the atomizing head of the electrostatic painting machine which is the painting machine 51 via the paint hose 81. The paint hose 81 is connected to the articulated arm 41.
When the first arm 42, the second arm 43, and the wrist 44 swing, the length is set so that an unreasonable tensile force does not act. In the present embodiment, the length of the paint hose 81 is set to approximately 1 m. FIG. 3 shows an example of a vehicle body painting line in which the automatic side surface painting apparatus 20 of FIG. 1 is arranged. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 101 denotes a painting robot that paints a door inner plate of the vehicle body 18. Painting robot 101
There vehicle body 18 which has passed through the robot zone Z ₁ arranged is conveyed to the outer plate painting base zone Z ₂ is a subbing process. Here, the automatic side coating apparatus 20 of the present invention is used.
And a top automatic coating device 110 for coating the upper outer plate of the vehicle body 18. The vehicle body 20 passing through the outer plate painting base zone Z ₂ is conveyed to the outer panel painted clear zone Z ₃ is a top coat process. Here, the side automatic coating apparatus 20 of the present invention and the above-mentioned top automatic coating apparatus 110 are arranged. Side automatic painting device 20 disposed outside plate coated clear zone Z ₃ is a side automatic painting device is disposed in the outer skin paint base zone Z ₂ described above have the same functions,
The coating conditions such as the coating speed are different. The outer coating base zone Z ₂ and the outer coating clear zone Z ₃ are each provided with two automatic side-coating devices 20 at two locations, one of which is fixed and cannot be moved in the horizontal direction. The other is movable by the moving means 120 in the horizontal direction. Next, the operation of the automatic coating apparatus will be described. When the vehicle body 18 reaches a predetermined position by the conveyor 100, automatic painting of the side plate 18a of the vehicle body 18 by the automatic side surface coating device 20 is started. Here, when the coating color at the time of the previous coating is different from the current coating color, the color of the coating is changed before the start of the coating. The color change is performed according to the following procedure.
First, the compressed air is supplied from the color changing means 61 side, and the residual paint present in the passage between the color changing means 61 and the coating device 51 is discharged from the coating device 51 by the pressure of the compressed air.
When the residual paint is discharged, thinner is supplied from the color changing means 61 side, and the passage between the color changing means 61 and the coating device 51 is cleaned by the thinner. When the cleaning by the thinner is completed, the paint supply passage is blown by the compressed air. When the washing of the passage between the color changing means 61 and the painting device 51 is completed, the flow of the paint is switched by the switching operation of the electromagnetic switching valve 62, and the paint corresponding to the designated painting color is supplied to the painting device 51. You. Here, the color changing means 61 and the discharge amount controlling means 7
1 and 2 are provided on the bracket 55 attached to the elevating means 31 moving on the running rail 21, so that the length of the paint hose 81 can be made significantly shorter than in FIGS. Becomes That is, with the painting device 51 ,
The color changing means 61 and the discharge amount control means 71, the positional relationship between, and the amount of movement of the lifting means 31 is irrelevant,
The length of the paint hose 81 only needs to consider the movement of the articulated arm 41 as shown in FIG. 2, and the length of the paint hose 81 can be reduced by limiting the operating range of each axis to the required amount. Can be shorter than Therefore, the color changing means 61 switches the coating device 51
The amount of paint existing in the paint supply passage before the change can be reduced, and the consumption of the color-change paint at the time of color change can be reduced. Further, since the length of the paint hose 81 is shortened, it is possible to reduce the consumption of thinner used for cleaning. According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) Since the color changing means and the discharge amount control means are provided on the elevating means moving on the traveling rail, the paint hose for connecting the color changing means and the discharge amount control means to the coating device. Can be made shorter than conventional automatic coating equipment. Therefore, the amount of paint existing in the passage from the color changing means to the coating device can be reduced, and the consumption of the color changing paint at the time of color changing can be reduced. (2) Since the color changing means and the discharge amount control means are provided on the elevating means without being attached to the articulated arm, the load imposed on the articulated arm can be reduced, and the articulated arm can be miniaturized. And the durability can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of an automatic side coating apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the operation of the automatic side coating apparatus of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a plan view of a vehicle body painting line in which the automatic side surface painting apparatus of FIG. 1 is arranged. FIG. 4 is a side view of a conventional side automatic coating apparatus. FIG. 5 is a front view of the automatic side coating apparatus of FIG. 4; [Description of Signs] 18 Coating object 20 Side automatic coating device 21 Running rail 31 Elevating means 41 Articulated arm 51 Painter 61 Color changing means 71 Discharge rate control means 81 Paint hose

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-4-217488 (JP, A) JP-A-60-860 (JP, A) JP-A-63-200859 (JP, A) JP-A-61-14506 (JP, A) , a) JitsuHiraku Akira 61-167968 (JP, U) JitsuHiraku Akira 62-66765 (JP, U) Tokuoyake Akira 61-55428 (JP, B1) (58 ) investigated the field (Int.Cl. ^7, DB Name) B05B 12/00-13/06

Claims (1)

(57) [Claim 1] A traveling rail extending in the up-down direction, elevating means for moving on the traveling rail to elevate, and elevating with the elevating means attached to the elevating means
A multi-joint arm swingable with respect to the lifting / lowering means; a coating device attached to a wrist located at a tip of the multi-joint arm, for spraying paint toward a side surface of the object to be coated; The elevating means attached to the elevating means to which the articulated arm is attached without being attached to the articulated arm;
And lifting with a color changing means for switching the paint color of the paint supplied to the painting device, said multi without being attached to the articulated arm, the articulated arm the lifting means attached to said elevating means fitted with
A paint hose which connects the discharge amount control means for controlling the supply flow rate to the coating apparatus of the paint paint color is switched, and the discharge amount control means and said painting device by the lifting and, the color replacement unit together, An automatic side-coating device comprising: