JPH0343168A - Clamp leg for walking robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To damage no pipe internal face even if a leg is clamped to the pipe internal face by making the hardness of a touch member same as that of a pipe or about the same. CONSTITUTION:A driving force in the pipe axial direction of an actuator member 35 is converted into the clamp force in the pipe diameter direction by a converting member (a shaft with tapered face 109) 103, the clamp force is transmitted to the member to be transmitted (plate) 120 via transmission mechanisms 100, 102, a touch member 101 bonded to the member to be transmitted (120) is brought into contact with the pipe hole 2 internal face and a clamp leg 50 is clamped to the pipe hole 2 internal face. In this case, the touch member 101 has the same or about same hardness as that of the pipe. The damage of the pipe internal face by the touch member 101 at the leg clamping time can therefore be prevented. Moreover, each member (a roller 100, a holder 102) composing a clamp force transmission mechanism has a high hardness. The clamping force can thus be transmitted to the member to be transmitted 120 without accompanying a stress deformation even for a large clamping force.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the legs of a walking robot that moves along the surface of a tube plate using a tube hole in a tube plate of a heat exchanger as a foothold, and in particular, This invention relates to legs suitable for insertion into holes and clamping.

[Conventional technology]

The following walking robots of the above type are known. That is, the walking robot is equipped with a plurality of legs, and one of the legs is inserted into a tube hole in a tube plate, the leg is expanded within the tube hole, and the leg is clamped to the tube hole, and the leg is in that state. Insert the other leg into the other tube hole and clamp it in the same way,
Next, the robot walks along the tube plate surface by repeating the above-mentioned operation of contracting the legs, releasing the clamp, pulling it out of the tube hole, inserting it into another tube hole, and clamping it.

A conventional example regarding this is Japanese Patent Publication No. 17121/1983.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned conventional technology does not take into consideration the fact that the legs may damage the inner surface of the pipe, and there is a problem in that the damage progresses in the corrosion of the pipe.

An object of the present invention is to provide legs for a walking robot that not only do not damage the inner surface of a tube even when the legs are clamped to the inner surface of the tube, but also do not undergo stress deformation in response to a required clamping force.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is to make the part of the leg that contacts the inner surface of the tube a member with almost the same hardness as the pipe, and the part that transmits the clamping force to the member to be a member of high hardness, and to combine these members into an integral structure as a leg. This is achieved by

[Effect]

The members in contact with the inner surface of the tube have the same or similar hardness to the inner surface of the tube, so they do not damage the inner surface of the tube. Further, since the member that transmits the clamping force to the member is made of a highly hard member, there is no stress deformation due to the clamping operation. By forming such a member into an integral structure, damage to the inner surface of the tube and stress deformation of the legs can be prevented.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 3 shows a walking robot 12 that moves using the tube hole 2 of the tube plate 1 as a foothold, and a walking robot 12 that moves using the tube hole 2 of the tube plate 1 as a foothold. A truck 4 having structural legs 50', and a truck 5 which is slidably attached to the track 6 by rollers 10 sandwiching a track 6 attached to the truck 3 and connected to each other by arms 13'. , a brushing nozzle 7 attached to the cart 5, and a water pressure hose 11 thereof.

The trolley 4 is slidably attached to the arm 13,
It is relatively slidable along the arm 13 by a driving force.

To describe the operation, the leg 50' of the bogie 4 is inserted into the tube hole 2 with the shaft 8 extended, and the leg 50' is enlarged and clamped, thereby fixing the bogie 4 to the tube plate 1 and fixing the bogie 4 to the tube plate 1.
After the shaft 9 of the leg 50 is retracted to remove the leg 50 from the tube hole 2, the arm 13 is slid upward or downward relative to the truck 4. Next, extend the shaft 9 and insert the leg 50 of the trolley 3 into the tube hole 2, expand the leg 50 and clamp it to fix the trolley 3 to the tube plate 1. Next, the leg 50' of the trolley 4 is The shaft 8 is retracted to release the clamped state, the leg 50' is removed from the tube hole 2, and the carriage 4 is moved upward or downward along the arm 13. This aligns the nozzle 7 with another pipe hole 2, and the cleaning brush (
(not shown) into the pipe hole 2 and clean it. Movement in the left-right direction along the surface of the tube plate 1 is performed by rotating the rollers 10 along a track 6 fixed to the truck 3 to move the truck 5 left and right. As a result, the nozzle 7 also moves in the same way, so this nozzle 7 is aligned with another pipe hole 2, and a brush is driven in to clean it. Clean the tube hole 2 while moving up and down and left and right in this way.

In this walking robot 12, the legs 50' and 50 of each of the cart 4 and the cart 3 are provided also in the left and right directions when viewed from the surface of the tube plate 1, to ensure stability in the left and right direction.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of the leg 50, 50' according to the embodiment of the present invention. For convenience of illustration, the leg in the lamp release state is indicated by 50B, and its left half is simply shown on the left side of the figure. The leg in the clamped condition is shown at 500, and its right half is only shown on the right side of the figure. That is,
Different leg conditions are illustrated in one figure for convenience.

FIG. 2 shows the leg along the line AA in FIG. 1.

Clamping and unclamping operations are performed using the air cylinder 35.
This is done by supplying and discharging air to the air supply ports 105 and 106.

Let's talk about the leg 50B when the clamp is released.

By supplying air to the air supply port 106, the shaft 103
When the shaft 103 is contracted, the diameter of the shaft 103 that contacts the roller 100 becomes smaller due to the taper 109 of the shaft 103, and the force of the spring material ring 104 that surrounds it and whose diameter is constantly decreasing makes it integral with the touch plate 101. The plate 120 of the touch plate 101 pushes the roller 100 toward the shaft 103. The plate 120 and roller 100 move the shirt 1 along the guide hole of the holder 102.
As a result, the touch plate 101 moves away from the inner surface of the tube hole 2 and is in a clamped state, so that the shaft 8
By expanding and contracting the legs 50B, the legs 50B can be inserted into and pulled out from the tube hole 2.

On the other hand, with respect to the leg 50G clamped to the tube hole 2, the shaft 103 is extended by supplying air from the air supply port 105 of the air cylinder 35 and discharging air from the other air supply port 105. As a result, the tapered surface 109 slides, and the roller 100 and the plate 120 and touch plate 101 in contact with the roller 100 are moved by the spring material ring 1.
Push out against the force of 04, and touch plate 1 on the inner surface of tube hole 2.
Press 01 to clamp.

By the way, the material of the tube 2 is often a material that is not hard in comparison, such as brass. Therefore, in this embodiment, the touch plate 101 is made of the same material as the tube 2. In this way, the inner surface of the tube hole 2 will not be damaged during clamping. Further, the force pushing the roller 100 by the taper 109 of the shaft 103 is not only the force that prevents the clamped leg 50C from coming out of the pipe hole, but also the reaction force when driving the brush from the nozzle 7 in FIG. It needs to be a combination. For this reason, the taper 109. The compressive stress applied to the roller 100 and plate 120 increases. Therefore, shaft 103. Holder 102, roller 100. A hard material is selected as the material for the plate 120. plate 12
0 and the touch panel 101 are welded and integrated.

According to this embodiment, there are the following effects.

(1) By making the material of the touch plate 101 in contact with the tube hole 2 the same as the material of the tube of the tube hole 2, the inner surface of the tube will not be damaged when clamping to the tube hole 2 with the legs 50° 50'. , can prevent corrosion of the pipe due to scratches.

(2) Shaft 1.03, roller 100. Holder 10
2 and the plate 120 are made of high hardness materials, deformation due to compressive stress can be prevented. Also, large compressive stress can be applied.

Next, another embodiment is shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, which is a top view thereof. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, plate 1
Although the touch panel 20 and the touch panel 101 are welded together on a plane, they can also be integrated through uneven portions as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. For example, the plate 120 may be provided with a convex portion 132, and the touch plate 101 in contact with the convex portion 132 may be provided with a dovetail groove 133 that matches the shape of the convex portion 132, and the two may be integrated via these. Note that the groove 134 is formed in the spring ring 1 described above.
This is the groove where 04 is inserted.

Of course, the means for joining the plate 120 and the touch plate 101 is not limited to the above-described welding or dovetail fitting, but other joining means such as adhesion and screwing can be selected as necessary. Furthermore, the touch plate 101 is not limited to being made of the same material as the tube, and even if a material with similar hardness is selected, there will be no deviation from the object of the present invention.

In addition, in the above explanation, an example in which the present invention is applied to a leg that is clamped by a taper and a roller is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. It can be applied to wedge-type legs or link-type legs.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, even if the legs are clamped to the inner surface of the tube, the inner surface of the tube will not be damaged. Furthermore, even with large ramp forces, there is no stress deformation and the force can be transmitted.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a clamped and unclamped state of a leg according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG.
3 is a side view illustrating a walking robot to which the present invention is applied; FIG. 4 is a side view illustrating a connection between a leg touch plate and a plate according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. The figure is a top view of FIG. 35...Air cylinder, 50.50'...Legs, 50
B... Legs in unclamped state, 50C... Legs in clamped state, 100... Roller, 101... Touch plate, 102... Holder, 103... Shaft, 104
...Ringba funeral map OB 0C Tail map 0 ○

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. By alternately inserting and clamping a plurality of clamp legs into the tube holes of a tube sheet where a large number of tubes are arranged and connected,
A clamping leg of a walking robot that moves along the tube plate surface, and an actuator member that is driven in the axial direction of the tube and converts the driving force of the actuator member into a clamping force in the radial direction of the tube. A clamping force transmission mechanism including a converting member and a transmitted member to which the clamping force is transmitted from the converting member, and a touch member coupled to the transmitted member and in contact with the inner surface of the tube, A clamp leg for a walking robot, wherein the touch member has the same or approximately the same hardness as the tube, and each member constituting the clamp force transmission mechanism has high hardness.