JPH01159075A - Applicator for viscous material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily perform reapplying operation when an application fault is generated by receiving a signal sent from a memory means and allowing only the part in which the application fault has been generated to be applied with viscous material by an application controlling means. CONSTITUTION:An application nozzle 2 for allowing a work such as a panel to be applied with viscous material is fitted to the arm 1 of a robot and this arm 1 is moved along a locus previously teached by a robot controlling means 10. The applied state of viscous material is sensed with a sensor 5 fitted to the arm 1 and also an application fault such as application cutting of viscous material is calculated with a signal sent from the sensor 5 by a sensor controlling means 11. Further in a storing means 19, both generation time of an application fault and reset time are stored by receiving a signal sent from a reference time generating clock 17 for counting time from start of applying operation and a signal sent from the means 11. Furthermore at a time for reapplying the application fault, only the fault part is applied with a signal sent from the means 19 by an application controlling means 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a viscous material applicator for applying a viscous material such as a sealer to a workpiece such as a panel, and in particular, the present invention relates to a viscous material applicator that applies a viscous material such as a sealer to a workpiece such as a panel. The viscous material is reapplied to the surface.

(Conventional technology) Door panels, hood panels, and
For panel materials composed of an inner panel and an outer panel, such as trunk lid panels, etc., after the inner panel and outer panel are butted together, the end of the outer panel is connected to the end of the inner panel. Both panels are assembled together by folding them toward the outer surface.

A structural adhesive made of a viscous material generally called a sealer is applied to the contact surfaces of the ends of both panels to maintain the adhesive force between the two panels at a predetermined value.

In addition, in recent years, there has been a desire to further improve the rust quality of automobiles, so it is necessary to prevent moisture from entering the cavity called a bag-shaped portion formed between the inner panel and the outer panel. Therefore, in order to prevent rust from pitting corrosion, etc., the structural adhesive is commonly used and applied as a sealing material for the purpose of rust prevention.

Furthermore, some panels include two panels stacked one on top of the other, such as a floor panel.

In this case, the part where the end face of one panel and the other panel adjoin becomes a seam, and in order to prevent water from entering between the panels from this part, for example, an intermediate coat is applied to the car body. A sealant is applied after completion.

When applying a viscous material such as a sealer to a panel as described above, as shown in FIG. The arm 1 is moved along a predetermined trajectory taught in advance by a signal from the robot control means. When automatically applying a viscous material using a robot in this way, a pump 4 for applying the viscous material from the application nozzle 2 is attached to the application gun body 3, and the viscous material is properly applied to the workpiece. In order to detect whether or not the coating is applied in a suitable state, a sensor 5 consisting of a light source section 5a and a light receiving section 5b is attached.

By processing the signal from this sensor 5, it is detected whether the applied viscous material has been applied to a predetermined position on the workpiece with a predetermined width.

There are two cases in which the coating is not applied to the specified width: cases in which it is not applied at all and cases in which it is applied in a width narrower than the specified width. If it is not coated, it will be a coating defect. Further, when a coating defect occurs, there is a case where a coating breaks down from time to time and the desired coating state is restored again, and in this case, only a certain section becomes a coating defect.

If a coating defect occurs, a predetermined adhesive force may not be obtained or water may enter the bag-shaped portion, so it is necessary to prevent this. For this purpose, conventionally, when the sensor 5 detects that a coating defect has occurred, a detection signal indicating that there is a defect in the coating operation is outputted to the robot control means using a signal from the sensor control means. It has become.

Conventionally, the robot control means is provided with a storage means, and here, based on the signal from the sensor control means, the starting point position and the end point position of the section where the coating defect has occurred, and the time when these positions are passed are stored. The robot's execution program number and its address data are stored. After the coating operation in which the coating defect occurred is completed, the arm of the robot is again moved back along the trajectory taught in the robot control means, and the coating defect is detected based on the data in the storage means. Reapply the viscous material only in the area.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a conventional viscous material coating device, as described above, the execution program number and The data of this address is stored in the robot side, and a device for storing the above data must be built into the robot control means in conjunction with a program for robot operation. This complicates the structure of the robot control means and causes viscosity. There was a problem in that the material application device could not be installed quickly and easily.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and an object of the present invention is to easily perform the recoating operation by performing the recoating operation without relying on signals from the robot control means. With the goal.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention for achieving the above object includes mounting a coating nozzle for applying a viscous material to a workpiece such as a panel on a robot arm, and connecting the arm to a robot control means. In a viscous material applicator that moves along a trajectory taught in advance, there is a sensor attached to the arm to detect the application state of the viscous material, and a signal from the sensor to detect coating defects such as lack of application of the viscous material. A sensor control means for calculating, a signal from a reference time generation clock for counting the time from the start of the coating operation, and a memory for storing the time when the coating defect occurred and the time when the defect was recovered in response to the signal from the sensor control means. and a coating control means for receiving a signal from the storage means and applying the viscous material only to the area where the coating defect has occurred when there is a coating defect and recoating.

(Operation) At the same time as the application of the viscous material from the application nozzle is started, a clock is counted and the actual position of the application nozzle is calculated based on the time from the application start point. A sensor detects whether the viscous material applied from the application nozzle is applied appropriately. When the viscous material is not properly applied and a coating defect or coating abnormality occurs, such as coating failure, the time from the coating start point at that position is stored by a storage means such as a latch circuit. Therefore, if a robot is used to perform recoating by moving the coating nozzle along a predetermined movement trajectory in the same way as in normal coating work, the coating defect will start from the coating start point at the same time as when pressure is generated. By driving the pump, it is possible to reliably recoat only the area where a coating defect has just occurred, without incorporating any special storage means into the robot control means.

<Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a viscous material coating device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the arm 1 of an industrial robot 1a is equipped with a coating nozzle 2 as shown in FIG. A coating gun body 3 having a coating gun body 3 is attached, and a predetermined amount of viscous material, that is, a sealer material S is applied from this coating nozzle 2 by a coating pump 4 driven by a motor. In order to detect the application state of the sealer material S applied from the application nozzle 2, the sensor 5 having the light source section 5a and the light receiving section 5b is attached to the application gun body 3 as described above.

The arm 1 of the robot 1a is configured to move along a predetermined trajectory based on information taught in advance to the robot control means 10 shown in FIG. Material S will be applied. Therefore, for example, if the planar shape of the workpiece W is the shape shown in FIG. 2(A), the coating nozzle 2 is taught to move along a predetermined trajectory shown by the arrow in FIG. 2(A)'. . Figure 2 (B) is similar to Figure 2 (A).
) is a time chart showing the amount of sealant S applied to the application position of the workpiece W when applying the sealer material S to a square-shaped workpiece W, and is a time chart showing the amount of sealant S applied to the application position of the workpiece W.
. . ., the moving speed of the coating nozzle 2 is slower than that in the straight portions B, D, . . ., so the amount of coating is reduced.

The basic structure of the sensor 5 for detecting the application state of the sealer material S is shown in FIG. A linear laser beam from the light source 5a is irradiated onto the surface of the workpiece W as shown by the broken line, and the light reflected from the surface of the workpiece W is transmitted to the CCD element 6 in the light receiving section 5b.
The light enters through a diffusion screen 7 and a lens 8. The signal from this element 6 is sent to the camera control section 12 and calculation section 13 in the sensor control means 11, and as shown in FIG. The distance from the edge of the workpiece W and the width d of the sealer material S are calculated. Therefore, if the sealer material S is not applied to the predetermined position on the work W, if the sealer material S does not have the predetermined width d, or if it is not applied at all, there is a coating defect or It can be determined that the coating is in an abnormal state.

The operation control of the pump 4 attached to the coating gun body 3 is as follows:
This is done by the application control means 14,
This coating control means 14 is provided with a coating control block 16 for controlling the operation of the pump 4 in response to a signal from a calculation unit 15, and further generates a reference time from when the pump 4 starts operating. A clock 17 is provided.

A signal from the sensor control means 11 is sent to the calculation unit 15 via the input/output board 18, and the signal is sent to the calculation unit 15 through the input/output board 18, and is used to determine the time when the coating defect occurred, the time during which the defect continued to occur, and the time during coating. The coating control means 1 includes a latch circuit as a memory means for storing the time when the coating state is returned to the normal coating state when the coating defect is eliminated and the coating state is restored.
It is located within 4.

The start of operation of the pump 4 is sent from within the robot control means 10 to the calculation unit 15 via one input/output port here and the input/output port 20 within the application control means 14 .

When the coating nozzle 2 is moved along a predetermined trajectory with respect to one workpiece W by moving the arm 1 of the robot 1a along a predetermined trajectory, the coating operation is completed, but during this coating operation, the above-mentioned When a coating defect occurs as described above, it is necessary to reapply the sealer material S to the workpiece W only at the location where the defect has occurred. In that case, if the workpiece W is automatically transported, set the transport to remain stopped and move the robot 1a
play back again. In other words, if the coating nozzle 2 is to apply the sealer material S to the work W shown in FIG. 2(A), the coating nozzle 2 is moved again to the starting position iA, and the coating nozzle 2 is transported.

The area where the above-mentioned coating defect has occurred is stored in the latch circuit 19 as the time from the position where the coating operation started, so in the recoating operation, the actual time after the recoating operation starts. The time at which the coating defect occurred in the previous coating operation is compared with the time at the portion where the coating defect occurred, and the sealer material S is reapplied only to the portion where the coating defect occurred in response to a signal from one latch circuit.

Next, the operating state of the coating control device of the present invention will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When applying the sealer material S to the work W transported to a predetermined position by the transport device, a start signal is sent to the robot control means 10 when the work W is transported to the predetermined position.

As a result, the coating nozzle 2 moves along a predetermined trajectory based on the teaching information stored in advance in the robot control means 10, but the coating starts when the coating nozzle 2 moves to the coating start position A. A command is issued (step 1).

Then, whether the coating operation for this workpiece W is a new workpiece or the coating operation for the previous workpiece W has been completed, but a coating defect has occurred in the coating operation, and it is necessary to recoat the workpiece W. It is determined whether or not to do so (step 2). If the workpiece W is new, the clock 17 is counted up (step 3), and the pump 4 is activated (step 4). Furthermore, the sensor 5 detects the application state of the sealer material S applied from the nozzle 2 (step 5), and it is determined whether the sealer material S is applied in an appropriate state without any coating defects (step 6). This is continued until the coating operation is completed, and when it is detected that all coating positions have been properly coated and the coating operation for one workpiece W has been completed by a signal from the robot control means 10 (step 7),
Control is completed through step 8.

In the above-mentioned coating operation, if the sealer material S is not applied to the predetermined position of the work W, the sealer material S does not have a predetermined width, or is not applied at all, the above-mentioned As a result, coating defects will occur. This state is determined by the sensor control means 11- using the signal from the sensor 5 as shown in step 6. In this case, as shown in step, the time from the start of coating at the time when the coating defect occurred is counted, and if the coating returns to a proper state after a certain period of time, the time of recovery or The time when the coating defect ended is stored in the latch circuit 19. Since coating defects may occur at multiple locations, the coating state is detected until the coating operation for one workpiece W is completed. In the case where a coating defect occurs, once the coating operation for one workpiece W is completed (step 10), since the time count value of the defective location is stored in the latch circuit 14, the process goes through step 8 and enters the re-coating mode. After the settings are made (step 11), the coating control ends.

In this way, if a coating defect occurs during coating work on one workpiece W, the recoating mode is activated, and the robot arm 1 is moved to a new workpiece W without transporting the workpiece W to the next process. Play it back again in the same way. In this case, when a start command to operate arm 1 is issued, the work W
This is determined in step 2 since the application to is in reapplication mode. In this case, the application nozzle 2
At the same time as the coating starts moving from the coating start position, the clock 17 counts up the time as in normal coating work (step 12).

Then, the actual position of the coating nozzle 2 is detected based on the time from the start of coating, the location where the coating defect has occurred is detected based on the time from the start of coating, and the location to be recoated is determined (step 13 ). If the position of the application nozzle 2 is a part where the sealer material S is to be reapplied, the pump 4 is operated here; otherwise, the pump 4 is left in a stopped state (step 14).

After recoating in this manner, it is again detected whether the recoated area is properly coated. If there is a coating defect in the re-applied area,
As described above, the recoating mode is set and the recoating portion is recoated again. Depending on the case, the recoating process may be completed once or a predetermined number of times, and if proper coating is not achieved even after recoating the predetermined number of times, an alarm may be issued to notify the operator. You can also do it.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, the application nozzle is moved according to information taught to the robot control means in advance, and the state of application of the viscous material from the application nozzle is detected by the sensor. Since the position of the coating defect detected by this sensor is detected based on the time from the start of coating, the robot can It is possible to reliably recoat the area where a coating defect has occurred with a simple structure without modifying the control means.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram showing a viscous material coating device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 (Δ) is a plan view showing a viscous material coating pattern on a workpiece, and FIG. A time chart showing the flow rate control status at the site;
Figure 3 <A> is a perspective view showing the structure of the sensor, Figure 3 (B)
) is a graph showing signal processing to detect the application state,
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control process of the present invention;
The figure is a perspective view showing the coating gun body attached to the arm of the robot. 1... Robot arm, 2... Application nozzle, 3...
...Coating gun body, 4...Pump, 10...Robot control means, 11...Sensor control means, 14...Coating control means, 1...Storage means. Patent Applicant Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney 8 1) Mikio (and 1 other person) Figure 1 Figure 3 (A) (B

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a viscous material coating device, a coating nozzle for applying a viscous material to a workpiece such as a panel is attached to an arm of a robot, and the arm is moved along a trajectory taught to a robot control means in advance. a sensor that detects the coating state of the viscous material, a sensor control means that calculates coating defects such as lack of coating of the viscous material based on signals from the sensor, and a reference time generation clock that counts the time from the start of the coating operation. storage means for storing the time at which the coating defect occurred and the time at which it was recovered in response to the signal from the sensor control means;
A viscous material coating apparatus comprising: a coating control means for receiving a signal from the storage means and applying the viscous material only to a portion where a coating defect has occurred when recoating is performed due to a coating defect.