JP7426198B2 - Coating device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a coating device that applies a coating material to a workpiece such as a substrate.

2. Description of the Related Art Coating devices that apply a coating material such as a liquid or powder to a workpiece such as a substrate have been known. In the coating device, a coating material is applied by a nozzle discharging a predetermined amount of coating material onto a predetermined location on a workpiece. The coating apparatus performs line coating in which the nozzle is moved linearly to apply the coating material in a linear manner, and spot coating in which the coating material is applied to one point without moving the nozzle.

In spot coating, the nozzle is stopped at the desired location to perform the coating operation, so it is only necessary to determine one positional coordinate of the location to be coated. On the other hand, in line coating, a line is assumed in which the nozzle is moved relative to the workpiece, and the coating operation is performed by connecting the starting point and ending point of this line. Therefore, when performing line coating, it is necessary to determine at least two positional coordinates, the starting point and the ending point of the coating operation on the workpiece.

Further, when coating a wide area by line coating, for example, the nozzle is moved in a zigzag pattern with respect to the work, so that the coating material from the linearly moving nozzle covers the entire area. Therefore, it is necessary to set a large number of passing points when the nozzle moves and determine position information for each passing point.

When a coating device performs a coating operation, it is common to move the nozzle and the workpiece relatively, not only by moving the nozzle, but also by moving the workpiece. That is, "relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece" includes a case where the nozzle is not moving and only the workpiece is moving. However, in order to avoid complication, the term "relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece" is used in this specification to refer to cases in which only the nozzle moves, cases in which only the workpiece moves, and cases in which both the nozzle and the workpiece move. "movement of the nozzle" or simply "movement of the nozzle."

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-066965

As described above, when the coating device performs coating work, it is necessary to set nozzle position information. In particular, when performing line coating on an area of a certain extent, it is essential to set positional information regarding a large number of passing points. For this reason, in the coating apparatus, the task of setting nozzle position information is often troublesome. Therefore, there has been a demand for reducing the work involved in setting nozzle position information.

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a coating device that reduces the work required to set nozzle position information during coating operations.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a storage container in which a coating material is stored and a nozzle for discharging the coating material onto a workpiece, and the coating material is supplied from the storage container to the nozzle. The device includes the following components:
(1) A coating amount storage unit that stores the coating amount to be applied to the workpiece.
(2) A movement control unit that controls the relative movement of the nozzle and the workpiece, starting from a coating start point and controlling the relative movement of the nozzle and the workpiece until the coating amount reaches the coating amount stored in the coating amount storage unit.

The present invention includes a coating area setting unit that sets an arbitrary area on the workpiece as a coating area, and the movement control unit is configured to cause the nozzle to apply the coating material to the coating area set by the coating area setting unit. The coating is set in a spiral manner while the nozzle is raised so that the nozzle escapes from the coating material applied onto the workpiece by controlling the relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece so as to discharge the coating material. The coating material may be applied to the area.

The movement control section may convert the application amount stored in the application amount storage section into the length of the coating material to be applied. Further, the movement control unit may control relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece, including the vertical direction of the nozzle.

According to the present invention, since the movement control section controls the relative movement of the nozzle based on the amount of application, it is possible to perform the application operation by continuing the relative movement of the nozzle until the amount of application is reached. Therefore, you only need to make the minimum necessary settings regarding the nozzle position information, such as the starting point of the coating operation and the range of the circle, and then you can perform the coating operation based on the amount of coating. The effort required to set location information is reduced. Furthermore, since the amount of coating is fixed, there is no wasted coating material, which is environmentally and economically superior.

Front view of the first embodiment Block diagram of the first embodiment Plan view when filling in in the first embodiment Enlarged view to explain conventional dot application Enlarged view for explaining spot application according to the first embodiment Enlarged view for explaining the effect of dot application in the first embodiment (the application area is circular) Enlarged view for explaining the effect of spot application in the first embodiment (the application area is in a spiral shape) Block diagram of second embodiment Enlarged diagram for explaining conversion of dot application parameters in the second embodiment

(First embodiment)
(composition)
The configuration of the first embodiment according to the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a front view of the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the coating device 1 is provided with a container 2 for storing the coating material 4 and a nozzle 3 for discharging the coating material 4 onto the workpiece w. The coating material 4 is discharged from the nozzle 3 and is shown by the dotted line, but is also accommodated in the container 2 . The coating material 4 is made of liquid, powder, or the like, and specifically includes solder, chemical liquid, and the like. In the coating device 1, the coating material 4 is supplied from the container 2 to the nozzle 3 by controlling a stepping motor (not shown), and the nozzle 3 discharges the coating material 4 onto a predetermined location on the workpiece w. 4 onto the workpiece w.

The coating device 1 is provided with a table 21 for coating work. A support 22 is erected on the table 21. Two arms 23 extending horizontally in a direction perpendicular to the pillar 22 are attached to the middle of the pillar 22. A rectangular parallelepiped Y-axis moving body 24 is attached to the arm 23 so as to be slidable along the arm 23 .

The Y-axis direction moving body 24 moves in the Y-axis direction (left-right direction in FIG. 1) by the power of a pulse motor (not shown). In FIG. 1, the Y-axis direction moving body 24 after movement is shown by a chain double-dashed line. The table 21 is provided with a holding section 25 and a slide table 26 in addition to the Y-axis moving body 24 in order to relatively move the workpiece w.

The holding part 25 is installed at the lower part of the Y-axis moving body 24, and is configured to be movable in the Z-axis direction (vertical direction in FIG. 1). The nozzle 3 is held in the holding portion 25 . The holding portion 25 moves in the Y-axis direction as the Y-axis moving body 24 moves, and also moves in the Z-axis direction in response to power from a pulse motor (not shown). Note that the holding portion 25 may be provided with a θ-axis moving body that rotates the nozzle 3.

A slide table 26 is arranged on the top surface of the table 21. A work w is placed on the upper surface of the slide table 26. The slide table 26 is provided so as to be movable on the table 21 in the X-axis direction (perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1), and is configured to move in the X-axis direction by receiving power from a pulse motor (not shown). has been done.

In the first embodiment, each component of the table 21, support column 22, arm 23, Y-axis direction moving body 24, holding part 25, and slide table 26 is included in the coating device 1, but each of these components The elements may be regarded as constituent elements of a robot such as an articulated robot, and the coating device 1 may be a device connected to the robot.

The coating device 1 includes a control section 10 incorporated therein. The control unit 10 is a CPU mainly composed of a microcomputer. The control unit 10 is a processing unit that outputs control commands related to coating operations, such as input operations, display, storage, motor drive, signal input/output, etc. in the coating apparatus 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, an operation section 13 and a display section 14 are connected to the control section 10. The operation unit 13 is an input device such as a keyboard, or a hardware or software mechanism for teaching. The operation unit 13 inputs various data such as the application amount A of the coating material 4, the discharge speed V1, the relative movement speed of the nozzle 3 (hereinafter also referred to as the movement speed of the nozzle 3) V2, etc. through the operation of the operator. do. The display unit 14 is an LCD display device that displays the input status of the operation unit 13 and the like.

The control unit 10 is provided with three storage units and two setting units. The three storage sections are a coating amount storage section 11 for the coating material 4, a discharge speed storage section 16 for the coating material 4, and a movement speed storage section 17 for the nozzle 3. The coating amount storage section 11 is a storage section that stores the coating amount A to be applied to the work w. Note that this "coating amount" may be a volume or a weight. The discharge speed storage section 16 is a storage section that stores the discharge speed V1 of the coating material 4 by the nozzle 3.

The moving speed storage section 17 is a storage section that stores the moving speed V2 of the nozzle 3. The moving speed V2 of the nozzle 3 may be a fixed value during the entire stroke of the movement of the nozzle 3, or may be set to change for each predetermined point section. The information stored in each of the storage units 11, 16, and 17 described above is input by the operator via the operation unit 13, and is stored in advance in each of the storage units 11, 16, and 17.

The two setting sections of the control section 10 are the application area setting section 15 and the starting point setting section 18. The application area setting unit 15 is a part that sets an arbitrary area of the workpiece w as the application area E. The application area E is an area where the application material 4 is applied by discharging the application material 4 from the nozzle 3. The shape of the application area E set by the application area setting unit 15 may be an ellipse including a circle, a linear shape, a spiral shape, or the like.

The starting point setting unit 18 is a part that sets the positional coordinates of the starting point S of the coating operation on the workpiece w as X, Y, and Z coordinates. The information set in the setting sections 15 and 18 described above is set in each of the setting sections 15 and 18 by the operator inputting it via the operation section 13.

Furthermore, a movement control section 12 is incorporated in the control section 10. The movement control unit 12 is connected to the three storage units 11, 16, and 17 and the two setting units 15 and 18, and stores stored information or set information therein. The movement control section 12 is connected to pulse motors (not shown) for the slide table 26, the Y-axis moving body 24, and the holding section 25.

The movement control section 12 is a section that controls the relative movement of the nozzle 3 based on the application amount A stored in the application amount storage section 11. The movement control unit 12 generates movement control commands Cx, Cy, and Cz in each direction of the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, and applies these to each of the slide table 26, the Y-axis moving body 24, and the holding unit 25, respectively. The relative movement of the nozzle 3 is controlled by outputting to a pulse motor (not shown).

The movement control unit 12 controls the relative movement of the nozzle 3 so that the nozzle 3 starts discharging the coating material 4 from the starting point S and discharges the coating material 4 onto the coating area E. Therefore, the nozzle 3 that discharges the coating material 4 is configured to draw the coating area E from the starting point S under the control of the movement control section 12.

In addition, the movement control unit 12 calculates the application amount A stored in the application amount storage unit 11 based on the discharging speed V1 of the coating material 4 and the moving speed V2 of the nozzle 3. It is designed to be converted into length L. The movement control unit 12 is configured to control the movement relative to the nozzle 3 based on the application area E, the starting point S, and the length L of the application material 4. The movement control unit 12 may output the converted length L of the coating material 4 to the coating area setting unit 15.

In the movement control unit 12, the length L of the coating material 4 is converted as follows. For example, assume that 1.23 ml is given as the application amount A, the discharge speed V1 of the coating material 4 is set to 2 ml/s, and the moving speed V2 of the nozzle 3 is set to 10 mm/s. When performing line coating under these conditions, the flow rate of coating material 4 per unit distance is:
2ml/s÷10mm/s=0.2ml/mm.
Based on this, the length L of the coating material 4 required to apply a given coating amount A is:
1.23ml÷0.2ml/mm=6.15mm.

(effect)
In the first embodiment having the above configuration, the movement control unit 12
(1) Coating amount A from coating amount storage section 11,
(2) Discharge speed V1 of coating material 4 from discharge speed storage section 16,
(3) The moving speed V2 of the nozzle 3 from the moving speed storage section 17,
(4) Set the coating area E from the coating area setting section 15,
(5) Each start point S of the coating operation is taken in from the start point setting section 18. The movement control unit 12 generates movement control commands Cx, Cy, and Cz for the nozzle 3 based on the application amount A, and sends each command Cx, Cy, and Cz to the slide table 26, the Y-axis moving body 24, and the holding unit 25. Output to each pulse motor.

When each pulse motor of the slide table 26, the Y-axis moving body 24, and the holding part 25 receives movement control commands Cx, Cy, and Cz for the nozzle 3, each pulse motor operates according to each command Cx, Cy, and Cz. Therefore, the slide table 26 moves in the X-axis direction, the Y-axis moving body 24 moves in the Y-axis direction, and the holding part 25 moves in the Z-axis direction. As a result, the nozzle 3 held by the holding part 25 and the workpiece w on the slide table 26 move relative to each other in three directions: the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis.

In the first embodiment as described above, the coating amount storage section 11 stores the coating amount A of the coating material 4 to be applied to the work w, and the coating amount storage section 11 stores the coating amount A from the starting point S of the coating work. By including a movement control unit 12 that controls the relative movement of the nozzle 3 and the workpiece w until the stored application amount A is reached, the relative movement of the nozzle 3 can be controlled only based on the application amount A of the coating material 4. It is possible to control. For this reason, in the first embodiment, once the application amount A of the coating material 4 is determined, the nozzle is operated until the application material 4 discharged from the nozzle 3 reaches the application amount A, that is, as long as the application amount A continues. It is possible to carry out the coating operation by continuing the relative movement of step 3.

(Reducing location information setting work)
According to the first embodiment, it is sufficient to set the minimum necessary positional information such as the starting point S of the coating operation. As a result, in the first embodiment, it is possible to reduce the effort required to set position information during coating work.

By the way, even if the location where the coating material 4 is applied changes when coating the workpiece w, if the size of the workpiece itself does not change, the amount A of the coating material 4 applied, the shape of the coating area E, etc. It rarely changes. In the first embodiment, since the starting point setting section 18 is provided, it is easy to set the starting point S of the coating operation, which is the minimum necessary positional information. Therefore, in the first embodiment, even if the location where the coating material 4 is applied on the workpiece w is changed, the starting point setting unit 18 can simply change the setting of the position information of the starting point S of the coating operation. This can be dealt with immediately and can contribute to improving work efficiency.

(Effect in line application)
The above-mentioned reduction in the work of setting position information will be explained from the viewpoint of line coating using a conventional coating device. In a conventional coating device, when performing line coating in which the coating material 4 is applied in a linear manner, positional information must be set for at least two points, a starting point and an ending point, one by one. Furthermore, when filling a wide area by line coating, position information must be set for a large number of passing points in proportion to the area of the area to be coated. As mentioned above, as a result, the work of setting location information becomes extremely troublesome.

On the other hand, when the coating device 1 according to the first embodiment performs line coating, the coating area setting unit 15 sets a linear coating area E on the workpiece w. Further, the starting point setting unit 18 sets the starting point S of the coating operation, and the movement control unit 12 starts moving the nozzle 3 from the starting point S so as to apply the coating material 2 to the coating area E.

At this time, it is assumed that the storage of the application amount A of the coating material 4 in the application amount storage section 11 and the setting of the shape of the application area E in the application area setting section 15 are performed separately. In this case, in the first embodiment, it is only necessary to set the position information of the starting point S in the starting point setting section 18, and when the amount of the coating material 4 discharged from the nozzle 3 reaches the coating amount A, the movement is started. It is possible to finish the coating work by stopping the relative movement of the nozzle 4 by the control unit 12.

That is, in the first embodiment, the coating work can be carried out by simply setting the position information of the starting point S in the starting point setting section 18, without having to decide the end point of the linear movement of the nozzle 3. Is possible. Therefore, according to the first embodiment, it is not necessary to set the position information of the end point, which is essential in conventional line coating.

Therefore, compared to the simplest setting of position information in conventional line coating (setting of position information of start point and end point), the man-hours for setting work can be halved, making it possible to improve the efficiency of coating work. It is. Further, even when filling a wide area by line coating, in the first embodiment, it is only necessary to set the coating area E in the coating area setting section 15 as a desired shape. Therefore, unlike the case of filling in a wide area by conventional line coating, there is no need to set a large number of position information as passing points, and the work of setting position information can be greatly simplified.

(Effect on filling)
The effect of the first embodiment when filling a wide area, whether rectangular or circular, will be explained using FIG. 3.

For example, a coating operation may be used for adhesion, in which one component is bonded to a plate component. A coating material 4 made of adhesive is applied to the work w, which is the part to be bonded, and then the work w is placed on a plate part (not shown) and bonded. In the conventional technology, when trying to set the movement path of the nozzle 3 in order to decide how to apply the coating material 4 to the workpiece w, it is necessary to set the movement path of the nozzle 3 in a zigzag or spiral manner. There is. Therefore, the work of setting passing points is extremely complicated.

However, when it is necessary to apply the coating material 4 to a fairly wide range of the workpiece w, the most important parameter is the coating amount A of the coating material 4, and it is necessary to apply the coating material 4 in a desired amount on a predetermined area. The trajectory of the coating material 4 guided from the movement path of the nozzle 3 and the positional information of the end point, such as where the coating material 4 ends, are not very important parameters.

In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the start point setting unit 18 sets the filling start point S (the center of the spiral in FIG. 3), and the application area setting unit 15 sets the shape of the application area E. is a spiral shape, and only the pitch number of the spiral is set. Further, the coating amount A is stored in the coating amount storage section 11. The movement control unit 12 first moves the nozzle 3 to the starting point S. When the nozzle 3 reaches the starting point S, it starts discharging the coating material 4.

When the nozzle 3 starts discharging the coating material 4, the movement control unit 12 moves the nozzle 3 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction so as to draw a spiral at the pitch interval set by the coating area setting unit 15. The movement control unit 12 stops the movement of the nozzle 3 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction when the amount of the coating material 4 discharged from the nozzle 3 reaches the coating amount A, and the nozzle 3 stops moving the coating material 4 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction. Stop dispensing.

In the first embodiment, once the coating amount A of the coating material 4 is determined, the movement control unit 12 continues the relative movement of the nozzle 3 until the coating material 4 discharged from the nozzle 3 reaches the coating amount A. The coating work can be carried out by Therefore, according to the first embodiment, it is possible to easily fill a fairly wide area with the coating material 4.

Moreover, in the first embodiment, by simply changing the coating amount A of the coating material 4, it is possible to conduct a test to determine the optimum value of the coating amount A when maintaining coating quality. Therefore, it is possible to easily determine the application amount A that is the minimum amount necessary for adhesion. This makes it possible to optimize the coating material 4 and contribute to reducing the usage amount of the coating material 4.

(Effect in spot application)
The effects of the first embodiment will be explained in comparison with point coating using a conventional coating device. In conventional point coating, the application location of the coating material 4 is determined using a single positional coordinate, and then the nozzle 3 in a stopped state discharges the coating material 4. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the coating material 4 is likely to swell up greatly on the workpiece w, and a coating material puddle 5 with a large height dimension is likely to be formed. Therefore, there is a possibility that the nozzle 3 is buried in the coating material reservoir 5 and the coating material 4 is attached around the nozzle 3.

If the nozzle 3 continues coating work with the coating material 4 attached around the nozzle 3, not only the coating material 4 that should be applied but also the coating material 4 attached to the nozzle 3 will come into contact with the workpiece w. , the shape and amount of the coating may be disturbed and the quality of the coating may deteriorate. Therefore, conventionally, when the nozzle 3 is buried in the coating material reservoir 5 and coating material 4 adheres to the area around the nozzle, cleaning of the nozzle 3 (wiping off the attached coating material 4) and maintenance (cleaning of the nozzle 3) are performed. has become essential. Cleaning and maintenance of these nozzles 3 have been a factor that reduces the production efficiency of coating work.

On the other hand, in the first embodiment, when performing a coating operation in which the shape of the coating area E is a minute circular shape, the shape of the applied coating material 4 is similar to that of the conventional method, even if the circumference is drawn as the coating area E. It is similar to application by spot application. At this time, in the first embodiment in which the movement of the nozzle 3 is controlled based on the application amount A, it is possible to continue the movement of the nozzle 3 while the nozzle 3 is discharging the coating material 4.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, in the first embodiment, the moving nozzle 3 discharges the coating material 4, and the coating material 4 is not discharged from the stopped nozzle 3 and the coating material accumulates. 5 is unlikely to occur. Therefore, the nozzle 3 is less likely to be buried in the coating material 4, and there is no fear that the tip of the nozzle 3 will get dirty. The upper part of FIG. 5 is a front view of the nozzle 3 that discharges the coating material 4, and the lower part is a plan view of the application area E.

Here, the difference between the application according to the first embodiment and the conventional spot application will be explained using a specific example. For example, it is assumed that under coating conditions defined by the performance of the nozzle 3, the properties of the coating material 4, etc., in conventional spot coating, a coating material puddle 5 with a diameter of 5 mm is formed with a discharge time of 1 second. At this time, in the first embodiment, the coating area setting unit 15 sets an area having an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the coating material reservoir 5 as the coating area E.

More specifically, it is assumed that the application area E is set to an extent that does not extend beyond 5 mm in diameter, for example, a circle with a diameter of 4 mm. The movement control unit 12 calculates the length of the circumference of a circle with a diameter of 4 mm as the length L of the coating material 4, and controls the relative movement of the nozzle 3 according to the length L of the coating material 4. Under this movement control, the nozzle 3 ejects the coating material 4 in a circle with a diameter of 4 mm over a ejection time of 1 second.

That is, in the first embodiment, the coating area setting unit 15 sets a minute circular shape as the coating area E, and by discharging the coating material 41 while moving the nozzle 3, the coating in the minute circular shape is performed. Area E will be drawn. In other words, in the first embodiment, the application work is performed not by regarding the minute circular application area E as a "point" with one positional coordinate, but by regarding it as a circle and performing the application operation along the circumference. The coating work is performed by moving the nozzle 3.

According to the first embodiment, since the nozzle 3 continues to move while the nozzle 3 is discharging the coating material 4, it is possible to avoid burying the nozzle 3 in the coating material 4. Dirt on the tip of the nozzle 3 can be reduced. Therefore, in the first embodiment, only the coating material 4 that should originally be coated is coated on the workpiece w, and the coating quality can be improved while performing the same spot coating as in the conventional method. Further, since dirt on the tip of the nozzle 3 is reduced, the frequency of cleaning and maintenance of the nozzle 3 can be reduced, and the production efficiency of coating work is improved.

Furthermore, the movement control section 12 can control the relative movement of the nozzle 3 in the vertical direction (Z-axis direction) by the holding section 25. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, it is also possible to continue discharging the coating material 4 in the circular coating area E while the nozzle 3 is raised from the workpiece w. The upper part of FIG. 6 is a front view of the nozzle 3 that discharges the coating material 4, and the lower part is a plan view of the application area E. In this case, even if the coating material 4 is applied onto the workpiece w, the nozzle 3 escapes upward, so that the tip of the nozzle 3 can be prevented from getting dirty.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, the application area E can be set in a spiral shape. In this case, the nozzle 3 does not discharge the coating material 4 while drawing the same circle in the coating area E, and the height of the coating material 4 does not increase. Therefore, a sufficient amount of the coating material 4 can be discharged without forming a coating material pool 5 on the workpiece w, while reliably avoiding the nozzle 3 from being buried in the coating material pool 5. Therefore, it is possible to prevent dirt from adhering to the tip of the nozzle 3 while contributing to further improvement of coating quality. Note that the starting point S in the spiral application area E may be a point located at the center of the spiral, or a point located at the outermost periphery of the spiral.

In the first embodiment described above, the nozzle 3 controlled by the movement control unit 12 can also be considered to perform spot application based on the operating principle of line application. Therefore, even if the coating material pool 5 formed by point coating is extremely small, for example, with a diameter of 0.5 mm, the movement control unit can control the control resolution sufficiently finer than that (for example, 0.01 mm). 12, it is possible to perform line application by drawing a very small circle.

In conventional coating apparatuses that perform spot coating and line coating, the control mode for the discharge amount of the coating material 4 may be switched between spot coating and line coating. For example, in spot coating, a fixed discharge rate mode is used in which the discharge rate of the coating material 4 is fixed, and in line coating, a variable discharge rate mode is used in which the discharge rate of the coating material 4 is changed according to the movement amount and movement speed V2 of the nozzle 3. may be taken. When switching the control mode in this manner, a problem arises in that the control becomes complicated.

On the other hand, in the first embodiment, since spot coating is performed based on the operating principle of line coating, there is no need to switch the discharge control mode of the coating material 4 between spot coating and line coating. Therefore, according to the first embodiment, complication of control can be avoided. Furthermore, even if the coating device cannot switch the discharge control mode, or the coating device can only be used for line coating without the function of switching the discharge control mode, in the first embodiment, only the line coating control method can be used. It can be applied to these coating devices.

Furthermore, since it is possible to avoid burying the nozzle 3 in the coating material 4, even in the coating apparatus as described above, effects such as maintaining coating quality and improving production efficiency of coating work can be obtained. Furthermore, in the first embodiment, since the application amount A is predetermined, the application material 4 is not discharged unnecessarily, which is environmentally and economically advantageous.

Regarding the "relative movement between the nozzle 3 and the workpiece w," the above embodiment mainly describes the movement of the nozzle 3, but the case where only the "workpiece w" is moved without moving the nozzle 3 is also described. However, similar effects to those described above can be achieved.

(Second embodiment)
(composition)
Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 8, the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described. The configuration of the second embodiment is basically the same as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the same components as in the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 8, the second embodiment is provided with a spot application parameter setting section 19 and a parameter conversion section 20. The point application parameter setting unit 19 is a part that sets a point application parameter T that determines only one position coordinate. The point application parameter T in the second embodiment is similar to the position coordinates set in conventional point application, but the nozzle 3 does not necessarily need to discharge the coating material 4 at the position coordinates. For example, when the application area E is circular, the point application parameter T may be the center point of the circle where the application material 4 is not discharged. The dot application parameter T set in the dot application parameter setting unit 19 is set by an operator inputting it via the operation unit 13.

The parameter converter 20 has a line coating parameter R set in advance, and is a part that converts the dot coating parameter T using the line coating parameter R to obtain position information D in line coating. The parameter conversion unit 20 is configured to output the determined line coating position information D to the coating area setting unit 15.

(action and effect)
In the second embodiment, by simply setting the point application parameter T in the point application parameter setting section 19, the movement control section 12 can control the relative movement of the nozzle 3 without setting the starting point S or the passing point of the nozzle 3. can be controlled to perform the coating work of the coating material 4. For example, P0 shown in FIG. 9 is a position coordinate in which only one position coordinate is determined, and here it is the center point when the application area E is circular.

R shown in FIG. 9 is a line coating parameter set in advance in the parameter converter 20, and here is the radius of the circular coating area E. P1 is the starting point of line coating, P2 to P4 are passing points of line coating, and P5 is the end point of line coating. The parameter conversion unit 20 obtains position information D of each point P1 to P5 for drawing a circular shape by line coating based on the radius R which is a line coating parameter. The application area setting unit 15 of the second embodiment sets the application area E based on the line application position information D determined by the parameter conversion unit 20.

In the second embodiment, line coating parameters are defined in advance in the parameter conversion unit 20 according to the specifications, performance, and characteristics of the coating device 1 and coating material 4, and the parameter conversion unit 20 converts the spot coating parameters T. Then, the positional information D in line coating can be obtained. Therefore, unlike when teaching line coating, the operator does not need to set the starting point and each passing point, etc., and simply sets the point coating parameter T in the point coating parameter setting section 19, which is the same as conventional point coating. Line application teaching can be performed intuitively.

In the second embodiment, since the line coating parameters are defined in advance in the parameter converter 20, the user does not need to be aware of various parameters when teaching. Therefore, according to the second embodiment, when performing dot application, the operator is not aware that the actual operation is line application, and good operability can be provided. As a result, the operator can perform intuitive teaching and maintain excellent operability.

Further, in the second embodiment, the amount of the coating material pool 5 can be easily adjusted by the line coating operation while maintaining the feeling of spot coating. Therefore, the second embodiment is particularly effective when it is desired to form a coating material reservoir 5 larger than one jet dot in a jet coating method in which coating material 4 is jetted from a nozzle 3.

[Other embodiments]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, various omissions, substitutions, and changes can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. This embodiment and its modifications are included within the scope and gist of the invention, as well as within the scope of the invention described in the claims and its equivalents. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various changes can be made as necessary.

For example, a rotary tubing type applicator that controls the amount of application material by moving a member that crushes the tube through which the application material 4 passes is driven by a motor, and a screw type application device that controls the application amount of the application material 4 using a screw pump motor. The present invention can also be applied to a coating device, a non-contact type dispensing device in which the discharge amount per shot is minutely and precisely controlled, and the like.

In the above embodiment, the movement in the X-axis direction is performed by the slide table 26, but which member performs each movement in the XYZ-axis directions can be changed as appropriate. For example, the support 22 and the Y-axis moving body 24 may be provided so as to be movable in the X-axis direction, thereby moving in the X-axis direction.

The control unit 10 described above can be realized by controlling a computer including a CPU using a predetermined program. In this case, the program implements the above processing by physically utilizing computer hardware. Therefore, a method for executing the above-described processing, a program, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded can also be included in one aspect of the embodiment.

Line coating parameters for deriving positional information D for line coating from conventional point coating parameters such as position coordinates and coating amount depend on the performance of the nozzle 3 and the specifications, performance, and characteristics of the coating material 4. There are parameters related to the shape of the coating area E, etc. The former includes the ejection speed V1 of the coating material 4, its upper limit if the ejection speed V1 is variable, the characteristics such as the viscosity of the coating material 4, and the degree of influence (correction amount) on the ejection speed V1. The latter includes the radius if the application area E is circular, the outer diameter and pitch if it is spiral, the rate of rise in the z-axis direction, the amount of rise, and the upper limit of rise.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the above parameters may be set on a menu or screen (for example, a screen for maintenance settings) at a different level than the application amount for spot application. According to such an embodiment, it is possible to exhibit operability equivalent to that of conventional spot application. Furthermore, on the display unit 14, the above parameters can be displayed all at once on the same menu or screen, making it possible to ensure excellent operability.

In the present invention, the coating material 4 may be discarded. There are two ways to perform a throw-off, a method that involves receiving a throw-off switch or an instruction from the outside, and a method such as automatic throw-off. In automatic discarding, the nozzle 3 is automatically moved to the spot or the place where the coating material 4 should be discarded based on predetermined rules, such as at fixed time intervals or at the start or end of an operation cycle. perform the beating.

When the present invention is applied to discarding the coating material 4, the nozzle 3 does not stay in the discarded coating material pool 5, and the nozzle 3 does not become buried in the coating material pool 5 on the work w. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the coating material from adhering to or remaining around the nozzle 3. This makes it possible to stabilize coating quality and contribute to reducing nozzle maintenance.

1 Coating device 2 Container 3 Nozzle 4 Coating material 5 Coating material reservoir 10 Control section 11 Coating amount storage section 12 Movement control section 13 Operation section 14 Display section 15 Coating area setting section 16 Discharge speed storage section 17 Movement speed storage section 18 Start Point setting section 19 Point application parameter setting section 20 Parameter conversion section 21 Table 22 Support column 23 Arm 24 Y-axis moving body 25 Holding section 26 Slide table A Coating amount Cx, Cy, Cz Movement control command D Position information E Coating area L Coating Material length S Starting point T Point application parameter V1 Discharge speed of coating material V2 Nozzle movement speed w Workpiece

Claims (3)

A coating device comprising a storage container containing a coating material and a nozzle for discharging the coating material, and supplying the coating material from the storage container to the nozzle,
a coating amount storage unit that stores the coating amount to be applied to the workpiece;
a movement control section that controls the relative movement of the nozzle and the workpiece until the coating amount reaches the coating amount stored in the coating amount storage section, starting from the starting point of the coating operation;
a coating area setting unit that sets an arbitrary area on the workpiece as a coating area,
The movement control section includes:
Relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece is controlled so that the nozzle discharges the coating material into the coating area set by the coating area setting section, and the nozzle discharges the coating material from the coating material applied onto the workpiece. A coating device that applies the coating material to the coating area set in a spiral shape while raising the nozzle so as to escape. The movement control section includes:
The coating amount, the discharge speed of the coating material from the nozzle, and the moving speed of the nozzle are set in advance, and the coating amount stored in the coating amount storage section is converted into the length of the coating material to be applied. 1. The coating device according to 1. The coating device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the movement control section controls relative movement between the nozzle and the workpiece, including the vertical direction of the nozzle discharging the coating material .

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