JPH03284542A - Palletizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To palletize works together with a wood frame by one robot by mounting a hand provided with a plurality of chucks capable of changing the pitch during work transfer on the top of a robot arm, and mounting an opening and closing type wood frame chuck on the end part of the hand. CONSTITUTION:Works W are sent to a work feed position A by a work feeding conveyor 1, and the centering of the work W is performed on the conveyor 1 by a centering mechanism 6. A robot arm 9 is moved to a palletizing position B to place four works W in the deep side of a pallet. When the change between the pitch of the works W on the conveyor 1 and the pitch of the works W in the position B is required, a chuck 11 is slid in the longitudinal direction of a hand 10 by a cylinder 12 during lifting and transferring the works W in the air by the arm 9 to change the pitch in the air. Then, the hand 10 is moved to a wood frame feed position C, its wood frame chuck claw is extended in the inner part of a wood frame F to chuck the wood frame F on the top stage. The wood frame F is placed on the works W arranged on the pallet by turning the arm 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a palletizing device that can automatically stack workpieces such as suspended insulators on pallets with wooden frames interposed therebetween.

(Prior art) For example, when shipping workpieces such as suspended insulators, the workpieces are arranged on a pallet in a predetermined arrangement, a wooden frame is placed on top of the works in the -th tier, and then the workpieces in the second tier are placed. It is necessary to repeat this process of arranging them on the wooden frame until a predetermined number of rows are reached. Conventionally, all such palletizing work was done manually, but there was a problem in that it was difficult to increase work efficiency because suspended insulators were heavy.

Attempts have been made to automate this using robots, but the method of chucking and loading workpieces one by one is limited by the movement speed of the robot arm and does not improve efficiency. There was a drawback that two robots were required, one for the robot and the other for the robot, which increased the equipment cost.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and allows a workpiece such as a suspended insulator to be efficiently palletized together with a wooden frame by one robot. This was completed in order to provide a palletizing device that can palletize into various patterns without dropping the material.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention, which has been made to solve the above problems, is directed to the tip of a robot arm that moves between a workpiece supply position A, a palletizing position IB, and a wooden frame supply position C. , is characterized in that it is equipped with a hand equipped with multiple chucks that can change the pitch by sliding during workpiece transfer, and that an openable and closable wooden frame chuck is attached to the end of this hand so that it can be raised and lowered. It is something.

(Example) The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to illustrated embodiments.

In Figures 1 and 2, (1) is a conveyor that intermittently transports a work W such as a suspended insulator, (2) is the robot body, and (3) is a pallet supply for sending empty pallets to palletizing position B. Conveyor; (4) is a pallet take-out conveyor for taking out palletized pallets;
(5) is a wooden frame conveyor for supplying wooden frames F to the wooden frame supply device c. At the work supply position A at the tip of the conveyor (1) for supplying the work, there is a centering mechanism (6) that centers the work W by sandwiching the work W from both sides of the conveyor (1).
) is provided.

Further, (7) is a pallet magazine connected to the pallet supply conveyor (3), and (8) is a table lifter provided at the wooden frame supply position C, which keeps the topmost wooden frame F at a constant level. It is for chucking crates at a certain level.

As shown in Figure 1, a robot arm (9) extends horizontally from the robot body (2), and a hand G is attached to the tip of the robot arm (9).
O) is installed. This hand Go) has a plurality of chucks (10) attached to a horizontal columnar body, and in this embodiment, four chucks (10) are attached.

These chucks (IQ's second and fourth from the left in Figure 3 are fixed to the hand (10),
1st and 3rd chuck (10 is small cylinder Q2
1 allows it to slide in the opposite direction.

Therefore, while the hand (10) moves from the upper position of the work supply position A of the conveyor (1) to the palletizing position B, the cylinder 02) is operated in the air, and the chuck (10, a
The pitch between O's can be changed. As shown in Figure 4, the structure of the chuck (10) is that the cylinder side operated by air pressure has a pair of left and right chuck claws (lla).
, (lla) can be opened and closed in parallel. Furthermore, a workpiece height detection sensor 041 such as a touch limit switch is attached to the outer surface of the fourth chuck (11), so that the height of the palletized workpiece W can be automatically detected.

In addition, one end of hand 0■ has a wooden frame chuck (
10) is installed. A wooden frame chuck (151, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, is supported by an elevating cylinder 06) so that it can be raised and lowered, two wooden frame chuck claws 08), and 0Ill are horizontal rails 07). The wooden frame F is chucked by sliding in opposite directions by the two cylinder sides and 09) while being guided by the wooden frame chuck claw side, and by expanding the bent hooks on the outside of the lower end of the wooden frame chuck claw side inside the wooden frame F. It is something to do.

Note that (c) is a wooden frame height sensor for detecting the height of the wooden frame F.

(Function) The apparatus of the present invention configured as described above first sends the workpiece W to the workpiece supply position A by the workpiece supply conveyor (1), and then transports the workpiece W onto the conveyor (1) by the centering mechanism (6). Center the workpiece W. The chuck (11) attached to the hand (10) of the robot arm (9) has a pitch equal to the pitch of the workpiece W centered in this way in the basic position shown in FIG.
However, in the embodiment, four workpieces W are chucked at the same time. Next, the robot arm (9) moves to the palletizing position B and places the four works W on the back side of the pallet. The arrangement of the workpieces W on the pallet varies depending on the size of the workpieces, but for example, if it is sufficient to arrange 12 pieces (4, 4, 4) at equal pitches, the robot arm (9) supplies the workpieces. The 12 workpieces W are arranged by reciprocating between the position WA and the palletizing position B three times. In addition, when the number of workpieces W changes midway, such as 4, 3, 4, the robot is controlled so that only 3 chucks (11) are operated, and furthermore, the conveyor (1) When it is necessary to change the pitch of the upper workpiece W and the pitch of the workpiece W at the palletizing position B, the robot arm (9) lifts the workpiece W into the air, and while it is being transferred, the chuck (10) is moved by the cylinder (E). The pitch can be changed in the air by sliding in the longitudinal direction of the hand (10).

When the first stage of workpieces W is arranged on the pallet in this way, the robot arm (9) moves the hand (10)
is lowered toward the workpiece W on the pallet with the chuck θ0 empty, the workpiece height sensor 04) detects the height of the workpiece W, performs zero point correction, and sets the reference height at which the wooden frame F is placed. The height of the next step is determined.

Next, the hand (10) moves to the wooden frame supply position C, and the wooden frame chuck (10) provided at the end thereof is moved to the lifting cylinder 0.
6) In the lowered state, unlike machined parts, the wooden frame F has an unavoidable warp, so the wooden frame height sensor (to) detects the wooden frame height, and the wooden frame chuck jaw side, 08
) inside the wooden frame F and chuck the topmost wooden frame F. Then, by rotating the robot arm (9), the wooden frame F is placed on the workpieces W arranged on the pallet. At this time, the reference height at which the wooden frame F is placed is detected first by the workpiece height sensor 04. The height of the workpiece W thus obtained is determined as the zero point.

After the loading of the first stage work W and wooden frame F is completed in this manner, the robot arm (9) returns to the work supply position A again and starts loading the second stage work W. When the loading to the predetermined number of stages is completed, the palletized pallets are transferred to the pallet take-out conveyor (4).
At the same time, the next empty pallet is sent to the palletizing position B by the pallet supply conveyor (3), and the same process is repeated thereafter.

In the above explanation, the height of the workpiece W and the height of the wooden frame F were detected for each loading and the zero point correction of the robot was performed. You may also do so.

It goes without saying that the arrangement of the workpieces W on the pallet can be changed freely by programming the robot.

(Effects of the Invention) Since the palletizing device of the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

(2) According to the present invention, heavy workpieces such as suspended insulators can be automatically palletized using wooden frames.

(2) According to the present invention, since the chuck and the wooden frame chuck are attached to the hand of the robot arm, both the workpiece and the wooden frame can be handled by one robot. Therefore, equipment costs can be reduced.

According to the present invention, the pitch of the chuck can be changed while the workpiece is being transferred, so the pinch of the workpiece at the palletizing position can be changed while the pitch of the workpiece on the workpiece supply conveyor remains constant. Various loading patterns are possible.

(2) According to the present invention, since it is possible to load a plurality of workpieces at the same time, palletizing work can be carried out efficiently even when there is a restriction on the traveling speed of the robot arm.

■ According to the present invention, even items such as wooden frames and workpieces with varying stacking heights can be corrected and loaded at a constant level; can also be taken at the same level.

Therefore, the present invention greatly contributes to the development of industry as a palletizing device that eliminates the problems of the conventional devices.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view, Fig. 3 is a front view of the entire hand, Fig. 4 is a side view of the chuck portion, and Fig. 5 is a wooden frame chuck of the hand. FIG. 6 is a front view showing an enlarged portion, and FIG. 6 is a left side view of FIG. 5. A: Work supply position, B: Palletizing position, C: Wooden frame supply position, (9) Two robot arms, (10): Hand,
θD: Chuck, (15): Wooden frame chuck. Figure 3 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] At the tip of a robot arm (9) that moves between work supply position A, palletizing position B, and wooden frame supply position C, there are a plurality of chucks (11) whose pitch can be changed by sliding during work transfer. ), and an openable/closable wooden frame chuck (15) is attached to the end of the hand (10) so as to be movable up and down.