JPH01197211A - Device for driving pallet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent disconnection, and thereby put a pallet in and out faster by relatively moving the pallet to the position of a connecting means, moving the connecting means to the pallet so as to be engaged with it, and thereby moving the means integrally with the pallet. CONSTITUTION:A pallet 5 is moved to the position of a pallet drive device 1 by a stocker 2. Then, hooks 7 and 7' are moved by a motor 13 to the direction indicated by an arrow head B'. And after the hooks 7 and 7' have been engaged with the cut-out 6 of the pallet 5, they are moved to the direction indicated by an arrow head B so that the pallet is pulled out. In this case, the hook 7 is guided by a guide 22, a holding member 9 and a LM guide 11, and is restrained of its movement by means of a spring 23 so that the pallet 5 is positively combined into an integral unit. In addition, the hook 7 is moved to the direction A and A' by a guide (not shown) so as to be regulated in position. Thus, the pallet can be put in and out faster, thereby enabling the connection to be positively made.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a pallet driving device for a pallet that stores articles and is used for transporting and supplying articles.

[Prior Art] Currently, in factories and the like, parts for assembling products are often transported on pallets of this type. Furthermore, with the spread of automatic assembly machines such as robots, pallet transportation has become increasingly automated, and furthermore, the loading and unloading of pallets stored in storage units such as stockers has also been automated.

In this automated conventional pallet drive,
As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a pallet 101
A pawl 103 is provided on the brim 102 of the
03 is structured such that a hook 104 of a pallet driving device can be hooked thereto.

That is, the motor 105 rotates the transmission pulleys 106 and 107 via a timing belt 108 stretched between them, and the rotation of the transmission pulley 107 is transmitted to the coaxial drive pulley 109. The hook support base 110 moves in six directions by the driving force of the drive pulley 109. At this time, the hook support base is guided by the kite 111 and moves.

After a sensor (not shown) detects that the hook support base has stopped at a predetermined position, that is, a position where it can be engaged with the pawl 103, the hook 104 is raised by the cylinder 112 and is engaged with the pawl 103, and the motor is turned on again. 105 caused the pallet to move hyperactively in the A direction.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in the case of the barre I-drive device configured as described above, the insertion portion 1 of the hook formed by the pallet body and the pawl is The bend must be at least larger than the width of the hook.

Therefore, when moving the hook by hooking it to the pawl, the movement at the start of the operation cannot be performed smoothly due to the gap between the hook and the pawl, and if the pallet is moved at a high speed above a certain level, the pallet There was a problem that the hook and pawl could come off due to the vibration of the hook.

Furthermore, in order to hang the hook on the pawl, it is necessary to move the hook in at least two directions, lowering the position of the hook and raising it again, making it difficult to speed up the hooking operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to provide a method in which the pallet relative 8 pins for pallet selection also serve as a joining operation in the operation accompanying the loading and unloading of pallets, and the joining is performed without any distortion. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pallet drive device which increases the speed of loading and unloading pallets and prevents the coupling from coming off due to vibrations during pallet drive.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To this end, the present invention includes a connecting member that is arranged to be coupled to the pallet via the coupled portion by the relative movement of the pallet provided with the coupled portion, and that does not impede the relative movement. It is characterized by comprising a coupling means and a driving means for driving the pallet by driving the coupling means at the time of coupling, and further, the coupling means connects the pallet 1 by press-coupling the coupling member to the part to be coupled. It is characterized by being integrated.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the coupling means and the pallet are coupled by moving the pallet relative to the coupling means for pallet selection and stopping the movement, and furthermore, by integrating the pallet and the coupling means, To prevent a pallet from coming off from a coupling means due to movement of the pallet.

[Embodiment j] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the embodiment shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an apparatus to which an embodiment of the pallet driving apparatus of the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1 indicates the entire pallet drive device, 2 is a stocker that moves a selected pallet to the position of the pallet drive device 1 by moving it up and down, and the stocker 2 is a rectangular parallelepiped made of 12 wooden stocker columns and its Consists of multiple shelves inside. Each of these shelves is formed by a total of four slide plates 28, two on the left and right.

The pallet drive device 1 connects the hooks 7 and 7' with arrow B in the figure.
After the stocker 2 is connected as shown in FIG. 2 by moving in the direction ', the pallet is pulled out by moving the hooks 7 and 7' in the direction of arrow B in the figure.

Figures 2 (A), (B), and 3 are top and side views, respectively, showing details of a part of the pallet drive device, and each element except the drive system is arranged symmetrically in each figure. Therefore, only one side is shown. Furthermore, Fig. 2 (A) shows pallet 5
is stocker 2. It shows the state pulled out from the same figure (B
) shows a state in which the hook 7 is stopped at a predetermined position and the stocker 2 is moved for selecting a pallet, that is, the pallet is coupled by relative movement to the hook 7.

In FIG. 2 or 3, 3 is the main body of the pallet driving device, and 4 and 4' are pallet kites formed perpendicularly on the main body 3. 5 shows a pallet, the other parts of which are placed on the pallet kites 4 and 4'. Notches 6 and 6' are provided at the ends of the pallet 5, and there are a total of four notches 6 and 6', two on each side of the barres 1 to 5. Numerals 7 and 7' are feet that are connected to the notches 6 and 6', and the notch 6 and the hook 7 and the notch 6' and the hook 7' are connected in a tight state, respectively. 8 and 8' are LM kites that support hooks 7 and 7' movably in the direction of arrow A or A' in the figure; 9 and 9' are LM kites that support hooks 7 and 7' through LM guides 8 and 8', respectively; It is a holding member that holds.

1O and 10' are syringes installed on the holding members 9 and 9', respectively, and their viscous force biases the hooks 7 and 7' in the directions of arrows A and A' in the figure, respectively. This biasing force causes the hooks 7 and 7' to sandwich the pallet 5.

11 and 11' are LM guides that support the holding parts 9 and 9' movably in the directions of arrows B and B' in the figure, respectively; 9', and the holding stands 12 and 12' are placed on the main body 3.

13 is a motor, and 14 is a pulley whose central axis is joined to the rotating shaft of the motor 13. 15 is a pulley, and 16 is a timing belt, which is stretched between the pulley 14 and the pulley 15. Driving pulleys 17 and 17' are provided coaxially with pulley 15, and are engaged with holding members 9 and 9', respectively, via healds 20 and 20'.

Note that the force for biasing the hooks 7 and 7' is not limited to a cylinder, and may be an elastic force such as a spring.

With the above configuration, the rotational driving force of the motor 13 is applied to the pulley 1.
7 and the pulley 17' connected to the pulley 17 by the shaft 17A, whereby the hooks 7 and 7' move in the direction of the arrow B or B' in the figure through the movement of the belts 20 and 20'.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a stool for positioning the pallet 5 at its pulled out position. 22 and 22' are kites that allow the hooks 7 and 7' to move relative to each other on the holding members 9 and 9', and 23 and 23' are springs that restrain the movement.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the hook 7 and the notch 6 are connected. The hook 7 is constituted by a roller 7A and a roller holding member 7B, and is rotatably supported by a rotating shaft 7c attached to the roller 7 shoulder roller holding member 7B. With this configuration, the hook 7 stopped at the pallet coupling position can be coupled to any pallet by vertically moving the stocker 2, that is, the pallet stored in the stocker 2.

In other words, the notch 6 of the pallet and the roller 7A are
Engagement and disengagement in both directions are possible by rotating the hook 7, and the selected pallet is moved to the position where it is connected to the hook 7, and the connection is completed only by this operation. Note that if a member with a small friction coefficient is used as the roller 7A, it is not necessarily necessary to rotate.

According to the above configuration, the roller 78 engages with the notch 6 while pressing and rotating, so that even if there is a positional error in the pulling direction of the notch or a dimensional error of the notch itself, the engagement is performed reliably. .

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the control system of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 and a robot (not shown). In the figure, 30 is a central processing unit (CPU) and a read-only memory (ROM).
) 31 and random access memory (RAM) 32, the pallet drive device 1. Controls the operations of the stocker 2 and robot (not shown).

The ROM 31 stores processing procedures related to control of the entire apparatus, such as processing procedures described later in FIG. 6. Also, RAM
Reference numeral 32 is used as a work area for storing the types of pallets to be pulled out, storage positions, etc., and for controlling the entire apparatus.

The operation of the pallet pull-out device 1 having the above-described configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the flowchart 1- in FIG. 6, the stocker 2 is moved up and down to connect the pallet 5 or the hooks 7 and 7', pull out the barrel 1-5 stored in the stocker 2, take out the parts, and then move the barrel 1-5 up and down. 5 is stored in the stocker 2 until the stocker 2 moves up and down again.

Step Sl First, the stocker 2 is moved up and down by a signal from a robot (not shown). At this time, the hooks 7 and 7' are in a position where they can engage with the notches 6 and 6'.

Step 52 - The vertical movement of the stocker 2 is stopped when the pallet 5 reaches the take-out position requested by the robot.

Step S3: Stopping of the stocker 2, that is, completion of coupling the hooks 7 and 7' to the pallet 5 is detected by an encoder (not shown).

Step S4: After detecting the connection between hooks 7 and 7' and pallet 5,
Rotate Han-Yu 13. The rotational driving force of the motor 13 is transferred to the transmission pulley 14. Timing Held 16. Transmission pulley 15
．． It is transmitted to the holding members 9 and 9' via drive pulleys 17 and 17'. As a result, the holding members 9 and 9
' is guided by LM guys 1-11 and 11' to the second
It moves in the direction of arrow B in the figure and stops at a predetermined position, that is, a position where the robot can only take out each part in the barrels 1 to 5.

Step S5: Completion of pulling out the pallet 5 is detected by the encoder 19.

Step S6: After detecting the completion of pulling out the pallet 5, a command is issued to the robot to pick the parts in the pallet.

Step S7: While the robot is picking the parts according to the above-mentioned pick command, the pallet pull-out device is stopped at the above-mentioned position until a pick completion command is received from the robot.

Step S8: When a command to complete the picking is received from the robot, the motor 13 is rotated in the opposite direction to that in step S4 to move the pallet in the direction of arrow B' in Fig. 2, store it in the stocker 2, and hook it up. 7 and 7' stop at the retracted position.

Step S9 Encoder 19 indicates completion of storing pallet 5 in stocker 2.
Detected by.

After completing step S9, the process returns to step S1 and repeats the processes from steps 31 to S9.

In addition, in the unembodied example, the shape of the hook 7.7' and the notch 6.6' is such that the entire surface of the hook and the notch engage with each other, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, even if there is a shape with a gap between the hook and the notch in the engaged state, the hook and the notch are in contact with each other at at least two points or two lines and are completely fixed in position.
Any shape may be used as long as it does not cause backlash or the like during the moving operation.

Further, contrary to the above example, a concave portion may be formed on the hook, a convex portion may be formed on the pallet, and these may be connected to each other in a 72 configuration.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, by moving the pallet relative to the coupling means for pallet selection and stopping the movement, the coupling means and the pallet are coupled, and furthermore, the pallet and the coupling means are integrated. This results in a connection without play, and prevents the pallet from coming off from the coupling means due to movement of the pallet. This allows for reliable loading and unloading of pallets.

Further, the complicated joining operation between the joining means and the pallet is omitted, the joining operation is simplified, and the pallet loading/unloading operation can be speeded up.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top view and a sectional view, respectively, of the pallet drive device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the pallet drive device. Fig. 5 is a block diagram of the control system of the device shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 6 shows the operating procedure of the device shown in Fig. 1. 7 to 9 are schematic diagrams of other embodiments of hooks and notches, and FIGS. 10 and 11 are top and cross-sectional views of a conventional pallet drive device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Pallet drive device, 2...Stocker, 2A...Slide plate, 2B...Stocker column, 3...Pallet drive device main body, 4.4'...Pallet guide, 5...・Palette 1~. 6.6'... Notch, 7.7'... Hook, 78, 7A'... Roller, 78, 7B'... Roller holding part month, 7C, 7C'... Rotating shaft , 8, 8', 11.11'...LM guide, 9.9
′... Hook holding member, 10, 10'... Cylinder, 13... Motor, 14.15... Transmission pulley, 16... Timing belt, 17, 17'... Drive pulley, 18a , 18b, 18a', +8b' - sensor,
19... Encoder, 20... Heald, 21... Stopper, 22, 22'... Guide, 23, 23'... Spring, 103... Pawl, 104... Hook. 20 Bells) ~ A- Figure 2 (A) Figure 2 (B) To. Procedural amendment March 30, 1999

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) arranged to be coupled to the pallet via the coupled portion by relative movement of the pallet provided with the coupled portion;
A pallet driving device comprising: a coupling means having a coupling member that does not inhibit the relative movement; and a drive means for driving the pallet by driving the coupling means during the coupling. 2) The pallet driving device according to claim 1, wherein the coupling member is a rotating body that rotates around a rotation axis perpendicular to the relative movement direction. 3) The pallet driving device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the coupling member has a shape to be coupled to the coupled portion comprising a recess. 4) The pallet driving device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the coupling member has a shape that is coupled to the coupled portion comprising a convex portion. 5) The pallet driving device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the coupling means is integrated with the pallet by press-coupling the coupling member to the coupled portion.