JPH018272Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Technical field The invention relates to an automatic tool changer for machine tools.
In particular, two tool magazines containing a plurality of cartridges each having a plurality of tool sockets are used, and these two tool magazines are installed around the machine body to quickly exchange various tools with the main spindle. The present invention relates to an automatic tool changer for a machine tool.

Prior Art When automatically processing workpieces using a machining center equipped with an automatic tool changer, it is required to efficiently process products with uniform dimensions.
In particular, the performance required of a tool changer in a machining center suitable for high-mix, low-volume production is that the tool magazine can store a large number of tools and can hold a wide variety of tools in advance, and that it can be moved to the desired tool change position when changing tools. For example, the time required to index the tool is short, and the time required to transfer the tool between the tool exchange position and the spindle is short. In response to such performance requirements, increasing the number of stored tools in a disc-shaped tool magazine or chain-shaped tool magazine inevitably increases the tool indexing time, or it is necessary to make the tool magazine multi-layered and separate the tool magazines from each layer. An apparatus in which the tool exchange arm travels between the main shaft and the tool transfer is disadvantageous in that it takes a long time to transfer the tool and the tool exchange apparatus itself becomes larger. In view of this inconvenience, it is possible to increase the number of stored tools and facilitate tool replacement by radially arranging a plurality of cartridges each having a plurality of tool sockets within the tool magazine and performing tool indexing for each cartridge. A tool changing device has already been proposed that achieves both of these functions at once (Japanese Patent Application No. 152,600/1982).

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to maintain the speed of tool indexing and tool transfer while using two tool magazines using the above-mentioned cartridges, and to maintain the speed of tool indexing and tool transfer from the two tool magazines and from the indexed cartridge. To provide a tool changing device for a machine tool having a configuration that does not use a complicated structure for transfer control between a desired tool and a tool spindle, etc., resulting in difficulty in manufacturing or an unnecessary increase in cost. That is. According to the present invention, a plurality of cartridges having a plurality of tool sockets are arranged in a radial arrangement in a tool changer for a machine tool using a tool magazine that stores a plurality of cartridges each having a plurality of tool sockets. Two disk-shaped or oblong disk-shaped tool magazines are loaded and arranged in parallel at two positions on the same plane around the machine body at a predetermined distance apart, and the two tool magazines are hung in a straight line between the two tool magazines. a cartridge guide device having a linear guide path that commonly slides and guides the cartridges that are moved outwardly from each of the tool magazines; a tool magazine indexing device capable of independently indexing one of the tools to a position aligned with the linear guide path of the cartridge guide device; a pair of cartridge indexing devices for individually moving each cartridge of the tool magazine to the cartridge guiding device and indexing a desired tool socket to a unique tool changing position defined on the linear guideway; The only tool transfer device that transfers the tool in the removed tool socket to the tool spindle of the machine and transfers the tool mounted on the tool spindle to the tool socket indexed to the tool exchange position. While aiming to double the number of tools, tools are indexed as needed from both tool magazines to the tool exchange position set on a straight path in the only cartridge guide device, reducing tool indexing time and tools between the spindle and the main shaft. The transfer time can still be maintained within a certain time. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the overall structure of a machining center equipped with an embodiment of the tool changer according to the present invention, which uses two long disk-shaped tool magazines. Further, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 1, showing an embodiment of the structure of the tool magazine indexing device. In Fig. 1, the machining center has a machine body 12 and a column 1 on a base 10a.
4, and a spindle head 18 having a spindle 16 is mounted on this column 14 so as to be movable in the Y-axis direction by a Y-axis drive motor 20. Also, the spindle head 1
8 is formed to be movable by a Z-axis drive motor (not shown) on the side of the body 12 in the Z-axis direction which is perpendicular to the Y-axis direction and coincides with the axial direction of the main shaft 16, and furthermore, the main shaft 16 is It is rotated by a motor (not shown) and is configured to rotate the tool T mounted on the main shaft 16 for cutting. Also base 10a
A table 24 is mounted on the base 10b, which is integrated with the
This table 2 is mounted so as to be movable in the axial direction.
4 is a pallet 28 on which a work W is fixed.
is removably mounted, and the tool T is positioned relative to the workpiece W by moving the spindle head 18 in the Y and Z axes directions and moving the table 24 in the X axis direction to achieve desired machining. . The above-mentioned pallet 28 is exchanged with a pallet stand by a known automatic pallet exchange device 30, and the machined workpiece W is configured to be exchanged with the next unprocessed workpiece W. Of course, the operation of each drive motor for the X, Y, and Z axes is controlled by a known numerical control (NC) device (not shown), and the pallet changing operation of the automatic pallet changing device 30 is also controlled by the NC device. controlled by.

On the other hand, in the machine body 12, two tool magazines 38 and 40 are provided on the side surface of the main shaft 16 in such a manner that they are arranged side by side above and below within the same plane. These two tool magazines 38, 40 have elliptical guide boards 42a, 42b as shown in the figure, and within these guide boards 42a, 42b, a plurality of cartridge receivers 44 are movable circularly along an elliptical trajectory. It is stored. This cartridge holder 4
The circular movement along the elliptical orbit of 4 is achieved by a known endless orbit device formed by a pair of driving and driven sprocket wheels arranged at two focal points of the ellipse and an endless chain wound around them. (not shown), the cartridge receivers 44 are arranged radially on the traveling chain at a predetermined pitch, and the drive sprocket wheels are rotationally driven by a mechanical control device (not shown), so that the cartridges are moved along the above-mentioned elliptical orbit together with the chain. This is done by running the cartridge receivers 44 all at once. In addition, both tool magazines 38, 4
0 is a preset cartridge feeding/input port 46,
48, and the cartridge inlet/outlet ports 46, 48 are provided with cartridge inlet passages 50, 5.
2 are connected, and the cartridge entry paths 50, 52 extend to the edges of the fuselage 12, and a cartridge 54 is guided therethrough. Cartridge lead-in path 5
0,52 in the cartridge 54 can be removed and a new tool can be inserted. Now, at the cartridge feeding/input ports 46, 48, the operations of loading the cartridge 54 into the cartridge receiver 44 of the respective tool magazines 38, 40 or extracting the cartridge 54 from the cartridge receiver 44 are carried out using, for example, a cartridge device using a cylinder device or the like. A configuration is provided which is achieved by a cartridge exchanging means, and this cartridge exchanging means is described in detail in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 57-152600. Furthermore, each cartridge 54 accommodates a plurality of (three in the illustrated example) tool sockets 56, and therefore the same number of various cutting tools T are accommodated therein. Therefore, the number of cartridges 54 currently stored in the tool magazine 38 or 40 is n.
, the number of tools stored in each cartridge 54 is m
If it is a book, n×m tools T can be loaded into one tool magazine, and both tool magazines 3
If 8 and 40 have the same shape and dimensions, the total number is 2×
A large number of tools T (n×m) can be stored.

A cartridge guide device 60 is provided between both tool magazines 38, 40, and this cartridge guide device 60 has a linear guide path 58 arranged in the same plane as both tool magazines 38, 40,
At both ends of this linear guide path 58 are oval guide boards 42a and 42b of the tool magazines 38 and 40, respectively.
Openings 62a and 62b through which the cartridge 54 can be delivered and received are formed at predetermined positions. Therefore, the cartridge 54 can be delivered and received through the opening 62a or 62b between the cartridge receiver 44 that has reached the position aligned with the linear guide path 58 and the linear guide path 58, and the cartridge indexing device described later can be used. Therefore, the cartridge 54 is transferred from the tool magazine 38 or the tool magazine 40 while being guided by the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60. A predetermined position in the linear guide path 58 of this cartridge guide device 60 serves as a tool exchange position, which will be described later. Here, in the tool magazine 38 or 40, the desired cartridge 54 loaded with the desired tool T is moved on the already-described oval circular orbit to a position aligned with the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60, that is, the opening 62
In order to index to a position facing a or 62b, the motor-driven endless track device described above may be controlled by a mechanical control device, which is the same as the indexing device in a conventional tool magazine. It goes without saying that the motor-driven endless track system forms a tool magazine indexing device for each tool magazine 38, 40, and that each tool magazine indexing device of both tool magazines 38, 40 can operate independently of one another.

Now, in the machine body 12, a tool transfer device 80 is provided on the side of the column 14, and this tool transfer device 80 has the same configuration and operation as the tool transfer device in a known automatic tool changer. A tool changing arm 82 having tool grippers at both ends is held on a transfer table 84 so as to be rotatable around a horizontal axis 86 and movable forward and backward in the direction of the horizontal axis 86. It has a configuration in which it is pivotably held about a longitudinal axis 90 relative to the vehicle. Then, due to the rotational movement of the transfer table 84, the tool exchange arm 82 approaches the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60 described above, and also approaches the spindle head 18 on the column 14. At a position close to the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60, a cartridge indexing device to be described later moves the tool magazine 38 to the linear guide path 58.
Alternatively, the action of receiving one of the tools loaded in the cartridge 54 slidingly transferred from the cartridge 40 into the empty tool gripper and returning the tool transferred from the spindle 16 to the empty tool socket 56 of the cartridge 54 is as described above. Horizontal axis 86 of tool change arm 82
This is accomplished by using rotation around the body and forward and backward movements. That is, the position 92 on the linear guide path 58 where new and old tools are transferred to and from the cartridge 54 in this manner is the tool exchange position.

Further, at the position where the tool exchange arm 82 approaches the spindle head 18 on the column by the rotation of the transfer table 84, the horizontal axis 86 of the tool exchange arm 82
The rotation of the surroundings and forward and backward movements are used to replace the old tool loaded on the main spindle 16 with the new tool previously received from the cartridge 54. In addition, when replacing a tool with respect to the spindle 16, the spindle 16 is positioned at a predetermined transfer position that is optimal for tool transfer with the tool transfer device 80 by movement of the spindle head 18 in the Y-axis and Z-axis directions. .

Next, the cartridge indexing device will be explained with reference to FIG. This cartridge indexing device 66 is provided at the back of the tool magazines 38, 40 and the cartridge guide device 60, and in this embodiment, one is provided for each tool magazine 38, 40 separately.
Two cartridge indexers 66 are provided. Each cartridge indexer 66 is connected to a guide board 42 in a respective tool magazine 38, 40.
a, 42b; a feed screw 70 connected to the output shaft of the cartridge indexing motor 68 and extending in a linear direction aligned with the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60; The feed screw 70 is provided with a rotary bearing 72 attached to the guide boards 42a, 42b to rotatably support the feed screw 70, and an index rod 76 having a movable nut 74 threadedly engaged with the feed screw 70. A claw 76a is formed at the tip of the index rod 76 to protrude in a direction opposite to the guide boards 42a, 42b.

According to the cartridge indexing device having the above-described configuration, the feed screw 70 rotates in both forward and reverse directions due to the forward and reverse rotation operation of the cartridge indexing motor 68. A nut 74 and an indexing rod 76 integral with the movable nut 74 move forward or backward at the back of the cartridge guide 60 in a direction aligned with its linear guideway 58. In the retracted position, as shown in solid lines in FIG. The claw 76a engages with the recess 55 formed in the shape of a notch. The engagement between the recess 55 of the cartridge 54 and the claw 76a of the index rod 76 is such that each cartridge 5
4 is a cartridge guide device 60 along an oval orbit.
This is automatically achieved because the indexing rod 76 is previously positioned in the retracted position when the indexing lever 76 is indexed to a position aligned with the above-mentioned retracted position. In this way, the recess 5 is formed in the pawl 76a of the index rod 76 in the retracted position.
The cartridge 54 with which 5 is engaged is connected to the index rod 7
6 moves forward, the tool magazine 38 or 40
from the opening 62a or 6.
2b to the straight path 5 of the cartridge guide device 60.
8 and is guided by sliding. In FIG. 2, the cartridge 54 fed into the linear guide path 58 by the indexing rod 76 and the tool T stored in the tool socket of the cartridge 54 are shown in broken lines. Note that the cartridge 54 is the tool magazine 3.
Two recesses 55 are formed so that the cartridge can be engaged with the indexing rod 76 of the respective cartridge indexing device 66 when loaded in either of the cartridges 8 and 40. In addition, when each cartridge 54 is installed in the cartridge receiver 44 of each tool magazine 38 or 40 with its front and rear ends reversed, the magazine indexing operation can be performed with respect to the pawl 76a of the cartridge indexing rod 76. They can be engaged. Such forward and backward movement of the cartridge indexing device 66 is determined by the amount of forward movement, that is, the amount of movement of the cartridge 54 from each tool magazine 38 or 40 to the linear guide path 58 of the cartridge guide device 60, and the amount of rotation of the indexing motor 68. If set properly through the control,
A plurality of tools T stored in the cartridge 54
Any of these can be indexed to the tool exchange position 92 (see FIG. 1) where tools are transferred to the tool transfer device 80 described above. It should be noted that if the above-mentioned cartridge indexing device 66 is designed and manufactured in advance so that the indexing rod 76 has a sufficient amount of forward and backward stroke, the cartridge 54 can be moved from one tool magazine 38 to the other tool magazine as necessary. 40 or vice versa. Furthermore, if a cartridge indexing device 66 with a sufficiently long stroke is used, it is also possible to slidingly guide the cartridge 54 from the two tool magazines 38 and 40 to the cartridge guiding device 60 using one cartridge indexing device 66. It is easy to understand that.

With respect to the cartridge 54 indexed as described above by the cartridge indexing device 66, the tool exchange operation between the cartridge 54 and the main spindle 16 is performed by the tool transfer device 80 as described above.

The tool changing device according to one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the tool magazines 38 and 40 of this embodiment can be replaced with elongated disk-shaped magazines, and according to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application No. 152,600/1980, It is also possible to easily construct an embodiment using two disc-shaped tool magazines disclosed by the present applicant. In addition,
When two disk-shaped tool magazines are used, the magazine indexing device for each tool magazine is replaced by an endless drive device using a chain and a known pinion,
It is formed by a gear drive device consisting of an internal gear.

Effects of the invention According to the tool changer of the invention explained above,
Two tool magazines are provided at fixed positions on the side of the machine tool, separated by a predetermined distance from each other, and each tool magazine is loaded with a plurality of cartridges each storing a plurality of tools, so that tool storage for one machine tool is possible. It is now possible to double the number of tools, and since tools can be changed using a single tool transfer device that has the same configuration and function as conventional tools, it is possible to change many types of tools in a fixed tool transfer time. It can be applied to machining centers for high-mix, low-volume production, and can be very effective.

In addition, a linear guide path was provided between the two tool magazines to commonly slide the cartridges from the two tool magazines, and the tool exchange position was set at one position above the linear guide path. The tool transfer device enjoys the advantage of being able to accomplish tool exchange and transfer with common motion control for either tool magazine.

Further, the time required for indexing the cartridge to the tool exchange position is not increased compared to when there is only one tool magazine. Therefore, if tools are stored in both tool magazines in advance so that tools are exchanged alternately in both tool magazines, machining can be performed by exchanging tools in one tool magazine. In the meantime, the cartridge in which the next process tool loaded in the other tool magazine is stored can be indexed, so the time required for indexing the cartridge in the tool exchange operation can be almost ignored, resulting in extremely high efficiency.

Furthermore, if you select the storage arrangement of tools in advance so that the two tool magazines are used alternately, you can use one tool magazine to perform the desired machining process on the workpiece sequentially by changing the tools while the next process is being carried out. This makes it possible to prepare the tools for storage in the other tool magazine, thereby significantly reducing machining down time between machining process changes and contributing to improved machining efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the overall structure of a machining center equipped with an embodiment of a tool changing device for a machine tool according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure of a cartridge indexing device in the same embodiment.
A schematic cross-sectional view taken along a line. 12... Body, 14... Column, 16... Spindle, 18... Spindle head, 24... Table, 28...
...Pallet, 38, 40...Tool magazine, 42
a, 42b... Guide board, 44... Cartridge receiver, 54... Cartridge, 56... Tool socket, 58... Straight guide path, 60... Cartridge guide device, 62a, 62b... Opening, 66...
Cartridge indexing device, 80...Tool transfer device, 82...Tool exchange arm.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] 1. In a tool changing device for a machine tool using a tool magazine storing a plurality of cartridges each having a plurality of tool sockets, a plurality of cartridges are loaded in a radial arrangement and the machine body Two disc-shaped or oblong disc-shaped tool magazines are arranged in parallel at two positions on the same plane at a predetermined distance from each other, and each of the tools is spanned in a straight line between the two tool magazines. a cartridge guide device having a linear guide path for commonly slidingly guiding the cartridges moved outward from the magazine; and a cartridge guide device provided in each of the two tool magazines to guide one of the plurality of cartridges to the a tool magazine indexing device capable of independently indexing each cartridge to a position aligned with the linear guide path of the cartridge guide device; and each cartridge of the tool magazine indexed to a position aligned with the linear guide path of the cartridge guide device. a pair of cartridge indexing devices for individually moving the cartridges to the cartridge guiding device and indexing a desired tool socket to a unique tool changing position defined on the linear guide path; A machine tool characterized in that it is equipped with a unique tool transfer device that transfers a tool to a tool spindle of the machine and transfers a tool mounted on the tool spindle to a tool socket indexed to the tool exchange position. tool changer. 2. Utility Model Registration Scope of Claims 1. The tool changing device according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge indexing device moves the cartridges from each of the two tool magazines to the linear guide path of the cartridge guiding device. A tool changing device for a machine tool comprising a pair of indexing rods.