JP5255546B2 - Car body transfer method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle body transfer method, and more particularly to a vehicle body transfer method in which inspection or processing is performed by swinging the vehicle body.

  Conventionally, when a vehicle body is transferred from a floor conveyor to an overhead conveyor, or from an overhead conveyor to a floor conveyor, there is known a lifting transfer device that moves the vehicle by moving it up and down while positioning and holding the vehicle in a horizontal state. (For example, Patent Document 1).

  For example, in the car body painting process, in order to remove the rust preventive oil, sealer, cotton dust, etc. adhering to the car body in the press process and welding process, which are the previous processes, to improve the throwing power of the electrodeposition paint on the car body surface, The vehicle body is immersed in a pretreatment tank, and then immersed in an electrodeposition tank in order to apply an electrodeposition coating for rust prevention.

  In any of the above-described immersion processes, the vehicle body is placed on a transport hanger suspended from an overhead conveyor, and the immersion liquid is immersed in the processing liquid in each processing tank. For this reason, in order to perform the immersion process, the vehicle body is transferred from the floor conveyor to the overhead conveyor, and when the immersion process is completed, the vehicle body is transferred from the overhead conveyor to the floor conveyor.

  In such immersion processing, when the immersion is carried into the processing liquid with an overhead conveyor, the door is not fixed to the vehicle body by a door jig, and is opened by water pressure or vibration of the vehicle body at the time of entry / exit, and the inside of the treatment tank. Interfering with the wall, the overhead conveyor stops due to overload. And if this stop takes a long time, the vehicle body immersed in the pretreatment tank and the electrodeposition tank becomes a waste product, and the vehicle body whose door interferes with the inner wall of the treatment tank is deformed, There is a defect that becomes a waste product.

  However, since the door jig is attached to each door by the operator, there may be a case where the operator forgets to install the door jig due to a mistake of the operator or an attachment failure occurs. In order to prevent this, the position of the door is confirmed by a sensor before entering the pretreatment tank (for example, Patent Document 2), the door is imaged by the camera, and the difference between the imaged door position and the reference position is detected. There is also a method of detecting whether or not the door is open by using (for example, Patent Document 3).

JP 04-122533 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-142607 JP 2001-000905 A

  However, using the lifting and lowering transfer device described in Patent Document 1, when transferring the vehicle body from the pre-treatment floor conveyor to the pre-treatment tank, the electrodeposition overhead conveyor for immersion in the electrodeposition tank, Since the vehicle body is moved up and down while being held horizontally, only a vertical load is applied to the vehicle body and the door, so it is difficult to open the door while keeping the closed state. There was a problem that it was difficult to find defects.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and a vehicle body in an inspected or processed state in order to prevent problems that occur when it is transferred to a transport hanger or the transport carriage and transported to the next process. It is an object to provide a method for transferring a vehicle body that can be transported to the next process.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the invention according to claim 1 is directed to a transfer of a vehicle body for transferring a vehicle body from a transfer carriage of a floor conveyor to a transfer hanger of an overhead conveyor or from a transfer hanger of an overhead conveyor to a transfer carriage of a floor conveyor. A swinging step of swinging while supporting the vehicle body with an articulated robot, inspecting the vehicle body, and performing other processing on the vehicle body, and the vehicle body supported with the articulated robot. And a transfer step of transferring to the transport hanger or the transport cart.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, by transferring the vehicle body by the articulated robot, the vehicle body can be freely swung, moved, and raised and lowered in various modes. It is possible to realize a flexible transfer method that can be reliably applied to the inspection and processing of the aspect.
For this reason, the invention which concerns on Claim 1 transfers to the said conveyance hanger or the said conveyance trolley, and the malfunction which arises when it conveys to the next process by conveying the vehicle body of the state inspected or processed to the next process. Can be prevented, and a preset operation in the next step can be performed smoothly.

Moreover, since the invention which concerns on Claim 1 can perform a rocking | fluctuation step and a transfer step in parallel, it can implement | achieve the simplification efficiency improvement of a process.
The transfer step may be executed after the swing step, or the transfer step may be executed while the swing step is being executed. Further, using a plurality of articulated robots, the swinging step and the transfer step may be executed by separate articulated robots.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the vehicle body transfer method according to claim 1, wherein the swinging step swings the vehicle body about a vertical axis or a horizontal axis.

  According to the second aspect of the invention, the tilt angle of the vehicle body can be freely tilted in the left-right direction (for example, rolling operation) by swinging the vehicle body about the vertical axis. Further, by swinging the vehicle body about the horizontal axis, the tilt angle of the vehicle body can be freely tilted in the front-rear direction (for example, pitching operation).

  Here, the longitudinal axis of the vehicle body means an axis in the direction along the front-rear direction, and there are various modes depending on the purpose of inspection and processing, such as an axis passing through the center in the width direction of the vehicle body and an axis passing through the center of gravity. . The horizontal axis of the vehicle body means the axis in the left-right direction. For inspection and processing purposes, such as the axis that passes through the center of the vehicle body in the front-rear direction, the axis that passes through the center of gravity, and the axis that passes through the front or rear axle. There are various modes depending on the case.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the method of transferring a vehicle body according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the swinging step determines whether or not the door of the vehicle body is assembled in a preset state. It is characterized by inspecting.

  According to such a configuration, for example, when the door jig is insufficiently mounted by swinging the vehicle body and inspecting whether the door of the vehicle body is assembled in a preset state. When the door is swung, the door is opened, so that it is possible to recognize whether or not the door jig is attached and how it is attached.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the vehicle body transfer method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the swinging step swings and discharges the paint staying in the vehicle body to flow down. It is characterized by performing processing.

  According to such a configuration, the paint staying in the vehicle body can be quickly and reliably discharged by swinging and discharging so that the paint staying in the vehicle body flows down.

  The method of transferring a vehicle body according to the present invention can prevent problems that occur when a vehicle body that has been inspected or processed is transported to the next process and transported to the next process.

It is a front view for demonstrating the rocking | swiveling step which concerns on the transfer method of the vehicle body which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a front view for demonstrating the transfer step which transfers the vehicle body from a floor conveyor to an overhead conveyor in the transfer method of the vehicle body which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a front view for demonstrating the rocking | swiveling step (a) and transfer step (b) in the case of transferring the vehicle body from an overhead conveyor to a floor conveyor in the transfer method of the vehicle body which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a principal part enlarged view of FIG. It is a fragmentary top view for demonstrating the structure of the door jig of the state attached to the door. It is a fragmentary top view which shows the method of detecting the attachment state of a door jig.

The vehicle body transfer method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described below by taking as an example a case where it is applied to transfer of a vehicle body at the time of carry-in / out in a pretreatment / electrodeposition process in a painting line.
Here, the pretreatment / electrodeposition process means from the pretreatment process that removes oil etc., which is the pretreatment of electrodeposition coating, to the electrodeposition process, but the pretreatment process and the electrodeposition process are used separately. There is also a case.

  In the pretreatment / electrodeposition process in the painting line, as shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle body W is placed on the transport carriage 10 of the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1, and the vehicle body W is carried into the pretreatment / electrodeposition process. Come (Fig. 1 (a)). The vehicle body W thus transported to the pretreatment / electrodeposition process is subjected to a swinging step by the two articulated robots 5 and 6 serving as transfer devices (FIG. 1B). Then, it is transferred from the transport carriage 10 of the pre-processing floor conveyor 1 to the transport hanger 20 of the pre-processing / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 (FIG. 2A) and transported in the pre-processing / electrodeposition process (FIG. 2). 2 (b)).

  On the other hand, when the vehicle body W is carried out from the pretreatment / electrodeposition process, as shown in FIG. 3, the vehicle body W after the pretreatment / electrodeposition process is completed by the two articulated robots 7, 8. After the swinging step is executed (FIG. 3A), it is transferred from the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 to the post-electrodeposition floor conveyor 3 (FIG. 3B).

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the transfer method of the vehicle body W according to the embodiment of the present invention is performed by the pre-processing floor conveyor 1 through a door jig 4 (see FIG. 5) attachment process (not shown). The vehicle body W transported to the pretreatment / electrodeposition process (see FIG. 1A) is swung while being supported by the two articulated robots 5 and 6, and the assembled state of the door W1 is detected. A first swing step (see FIG. 1B), a first transfer step to be transferred to the transport hanger 20 (see FIG. 2A), and two articulated robots 7, 8 In the state supported by the second swing step for swinging and discharging the paint staying in the vehicle body W so as to flow down (see FIG. 3 (a)), it is applied to the transport cart 30 of the floor conveyor 3 after electrodeposition. And a second transfer step (see FIG. 3B).

As shown in FIG. 1A, the vehicle body W is positioned and transported while being placed on a transport carriage 10 disposed on the pre-processing floor conveyor 1.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the positioning pin 11 disposed in the front portion of the support plate 13 of the transport carriage 10 is inserted into the opening of the side sill W <b> 2 of the vehicle body W, and the support plate 13 of the transport carriage 10. The side frame W3 of the vehicle body W is inserted and placed between the bifurcated members 12a of the substantially U-shaped receiver 12 whose tip is disposed at the rear, and is positioned and supported on the transport carriage 10.

  In the door jig attaching step (not shown), as shown in FIG. 1A, an operator (not shown) places the door W1 on the vehicle body W with respect to the vehicle body W placed on the transport carriage 10. On the other hand, the door jig 4 (FIG. 5) is attached so that it may hold | maintain with a fixed opening degree (refer Fig.6 (a)).

As shown in FIG. 5, the door jig 4 includes a bifurcated member 41 that is inserted into and fixed to a flange portion W4 of a door opening of the vehicle body W, a support plate 42 that extends from the bifurcated member 41, and a support plate. The engagement arm holding part 43 provided in 42 and the engagement arm 44 supported rotatably around the axis orthogonal to the support plate 42 are provided.
The engagement arm 44 is formed in a Y-shape, and the operator holds the shaft portion 44a, the first engagement portion 44b and the second engagement portion 44c formed in a direction orthogonal to the shaft portion 44a, and the operator holds the engagement arm 44. And a gripping arm 44d to be rotated.

  The door jig 4 is attached to the vehicle body W by inserting the flange portion W4 of the door opening of the vehicle body W into the forked member 41a of the door jig 4 and fastening it to the screw hole 41d of one member 41b of the bifurcated member 41. By engaging the bolt B, the flange portion W4 of the door opening of the vehicle body W is held between the other member 41c of the bifurcated member 41 and the fastening bolt B.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the door jig 4 engages the door by inserting the first engagement portion 44b of the engagement arm 44 from the opening W6 formed in the door W1 (indicated by a two-dot chain line), The operator grips the grip arm 44d of the engagement arm 44 and rotates it 180 degrees so that the grip arm 44d contacts and is held by the engagement arm holding portion 43 (shown by a solid line). Thereby, the inner plate W5 of the door is held at a constant opening degree with respect to the vehicle body W between the first engagement portion 44b and the second engagement portion 44c of the door jig 4 supported by the vehicle body W.

  Next, the vehicle body W is transferred from the transfer carriage 10 of the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1 to the transfer hanger 20 of the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 by the two articulated robots 5 and 6 serving as transfer devices. (FIG. 1 (b)-FIG. 2 (a)).

Subsequently, operations from the first swing step to the first transfer step will be described.
In the first swing step, the vehicle body W is supported by the two articulated robots 5 and 6 and is swung around the vertical axis (a direction) or around the horizontal axis (b direction) to obtain a door jig. 4 to check whether the door of the vehicle body W is assembled in a preset state (see FIG. 1B).
In the first transfer step, the vehicle body W is transferred from the transport carriage 10 of the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1 to the transport hanger 20 of the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 (see FIG. 2A).

  As shown in FIG. 1 (b), the two articulated robots 5 and 6 are disposed at a place where the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1 and the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 are laid in parallel, The front floor conveyor 1 and the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 are arranged to face each other so as to be parallel to the conveyance axis. The articulated robot 5 supports the front part of the vehicle body W, the articulated robot 6 supports the rear part of the vehicle body W, and the two articulated robots 5 and 6 that are paired operate in cooperation. Is controlled synchronously.

  A support plate 52 is disposed at the tip of the arm 51 of the front articulated robot 5, and a substantially U-shaped receiver 53 with the tip opening upward is erected on the support plate 52. The front portion of the side frame W3 of the vehicle body W is inserted between the members 53a, and a positioning pin (not shown) implanted in the fork member 53a is inserted through the opening of the side frame W3. A support plate 62 is also disposed at the tip of the arm 61 of the rear multi-joint robot 6, and a support 63 having a substantially U-shaped tip is erected on the support plate 62. The rear portion of the side frame W3 of the vehicle body W is configured to be inserted.

  In addition, on both outer sides of the pair of articulated robots 5 and 6, light projecting and receiving devices 9 and 9 are arranged so as to be parallel to the conveyance axes of the pre-processing floor conveyor 1 and the pre-processing / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2. ing.

  The pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 is supported by suspending and supporting a transport hanger 20 having a substantially C shape with the transfer device side open, and a side sill W2 of the vehicle body W is placed on the mounting tables 31 and 32 of the transport hanger 20. The vehicle body W is positioned by inserting the pin body 33 mounted on the front mounting table 31 into the opening of the side sill W2 of the vehicle body W.

  Under such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 4, the pair of articulated robots 5, 6 lowers the arms 51, 61 so as to support the vehicle body W, and reaches the stop position of the pre-processing floor conveyor 1. The side frame W3 of the vehicle body W on the transport carriage 10 that is stopped is supported on the receiving members 53 and 63 of the support plates 52 and 62, and then the arms 51 and 61 are lifted to raise the vehicle body W to the transport carriage 10. Transferred from above to the support plates 52 and 62 of the articulated robots 5 and 6, respectively.

  Then, the vehicle body W is held in a state where the tips of the arms 51 and 61 of the pair of articulated robots 5 and 6 are opposed to each other (the vehicle body W is parallel to the conveying axis of each conveyor). 6, the vehicle body W is oriented in a direction (a direction around the vertical axis of the vehicle body W) perpendicular to the transport axis of the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1 and the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2, or in the axial direction (around the horizontal axis of the vehicle body W). b).

  At this time, the projector / receiver 9 disposed on both outer sides of the pair of articulated robots 5 and 6 is operated. And when the light beam conducted between the light emitters / receivers 9 and 9 is blocked, it is determined that the door W1 is not fixed to the vehicle body W by the door jig 4, as shown in FIG. The alarm is sounded and stopped without transferring the vehicle body W to the transport hanger 20 of the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6 (a), while the vehicle body W is swung in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance axis of the pre-treatment floor conveyor 1 and the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2, or in the axial direction, If the light beam conducted by 9, 9 is not blocked, it is determined that the door W1 is fixed to the vehicle body W by the door jig 4, and the pair of articulated robots 5, 6 are operated to move the vehicle body W. The vehicle body W is transferred from the support plates 52 and 62 of the articulated robots 5 and 6 to the stop position of the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 and transferred to the waiting transport hanger 20. Then, the vehicle body W is immersed in a pretreatment / electrodeposition tank (not shown), and various treatments and electrodeposition coating are performed.

  Next, the vehicle body W on which the electrodeposition coating has been completed is transferred from the transport hanger 20 of the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 to the post-electrodeposition floor conveyor 3 by the pair of articulated robots 7 and 8, and an unillustrated electric vehicle W is transferred. It is carried into an electrodeposition drying oven and the electrodeposition paint is baked and cured.

Next, operations from the second swing step to the second transfer step will be described.
In the second swing step, the vehicle body W is received from the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 and supported by the two articulated robots 7 and 8, so that the paint staying in the vehicle body W flows down. It is swung around the axis (direction b) and discharged (see FIG. 3A).
In a 2nd transfer step, it transfers to the conveyance trolley 30 of the floor conveyor 3 after electrodeposition from the conveyance hanger 20 of the pre-processing and electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 (refer FIG.3 (b)).

  The pair of articulated robots 7 and 8 has the same configuration as the pair of articulated robots 5 and 6, and the difference from the pair of articulated robots 5 and 6 is that light is projected and received in the vicinity of the articulated robots 7 and 8. The device 9 is not provided, and the oil pan 90 is provided below the vehicle body W mounted on the pair of articulated robots 7 and 8. For this reason, detailed description about the articulated robots 7 and 8 is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the vehicle body W includes a support plate 72 for the arms 71, 81 of the articulated robots 7, 8 from the placement tables 31, 32 of the transport hanger 20 of the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2. 82 is transferred. Further, the vehicle body W is held in a state where the tips of the arms 71 and 81 of the pair of articulated robots 7 and 8 are opposed to each other (the vehicle body W is parallel to the transport axis of each transport conveyor), and then the multi-joint robots 7 and 8 are engaged. Is used to swing the vehicle body W in the direction of the conveyance axis of each of the conveyors (1, 2) (the b direction around the horizontal axis of the vehicle body W), and the electrodeposition does not adhere to the vehicle body W due to energization and stays in the vehicle body W. The paint is discharged out of the vehicle, the discharged electrodeposition paint is stored in the oil pan 90, and the stored electrodeposition paint is collected for reuse.

  Then, the vehicle body W from which the electrodeposition paint staying in the vehicle interior is discharged is transferred onto the transport carriage 30 of the floor conveyor 3 after electrodeposition by the articulated robots 7 and 8. Since the support of the vehicle body W on the transport cart 30 is the same as that of the transport cart 10 of the pre-processing floor conveyor 1, detailed description thereof is omitted.

[Effect of the vehicle body transfer method according to the embodiment of the present invention]
In this way, whether or not the door W1 is fixed to the vehicle body W by the door jig 4 in the articulated robots 5 and 6 in front of the pretreatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor 2 is transferred. Since it can be detected reliably in the middle, the door W1 is opened in the pretreatment / electrodeposition tank, and it interferes with the inner wall of the tank, thereby eliminating the problem that each conveyor (1, 2) is overloaded and stopped. .

  Similarly, since the electrodeposition paint staying in the vehicle body W during the transfer operation of the articulated robots 7 and 8 after the pretreatment and electrodeposition can be surely discharged, It is possible to prevent the electrodeposition paint from dripping and hardening on the peripheral device or the transport carriage 30 to prevent the operation failure of the positioning stop device of the transport carriage 30.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications. For example, in the above-described embodiment, a pair of two articulated robots (5, 6, 7, 8) are arranged in front of and behind the vehicle body W, but the present invention is not limited to this. One large articulated robot may be used by using a large articulated robot.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the pre-treatment floor conveyor and the pre-treatment / electrodeposition overhead conveyor are laid in parallel has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the articulated robot (5, 6, 7 , 8), after carrying out the swing step, it is also possible to transfer while adapting to the conveying direction of the conveyor to be transferred.

1 Pre-treatment floor conveyor (floor conveyor)
2 Pre-treatment and electrodeposition overhead conveyor (overhead conveyor)
3 Floor conveyor after electrodeposition (floor conveyor)
4 Door jig 5, 6 Articulated robot 7, 8 Articulated robot 9 Emitter / receiver 10 Transport cart 20 Transport hanger 30 Transport cart W Car body W1 Door

Claims (4)

A method of transferring a vehicle body for transferring a vehicle body from a conveyor belt of a floor conveyor to a conveyor hanger of an overhead conveyor, or from a conveyor hanger of an overhead conveyor to a conveyor belt of a floor conveyor,
A swinging step for swinging the articulated robot while supporting the vehicle body, inspecting the vehicle body, and performing other processing on the vehicle body;
A transfer step of transferring the vehicle body to the transfer hanger or the transfer carriage while being supported by the articulated robot;
A method for transferring a vehicle body comprising the steps of:   The vehicle body transfer method according to claim 1, wherein the swinging step swings the vehicle body about a vertical axis or a horizontal axis.   3. The method of transferring a vehicle body according to claim 1, wherein the swinging step inspects whether or not the door of the vehicle body is assembled in a preset state.   3. The method of transferring a vehicle body according to claim 1, wherein the swinging step performs a process of swinging and discharging the paint staying in the vehicle body so as to flow down. 4.

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