JPH0348085Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a pallet positioning device for a pallet that stores articles and is used for transporting and supplying articles.

[Conventional technology]

Currently, parts for assembling products in factories and the like are often transported in 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.

Automatic assembly machines that assemble electronic components stored in these automatically transported pallets,
For example, US Patent No. 4651863 (JP 60-56702
(see publication).

In addition, the applicant's earlier application, Japanese Patent Application No. 159610/1984, is a supply device for the articles constituting the automatic assembly machine.
There is an article supply device according to No. 60-195594, and when supplying articles such as parts and units to automatic assembly machines such as robots, these devices pull out articles necessary for assembly from articles stored in a stocker. ,
Transport to a predetermined position for assembly processing. When pulling out and transporting these items, we use an item storage container called a pallet or tray to store the items.
The stocker is equipped with a shelf to store this container. Article storage containers are stored in this shelf, and the containers are taken in and out of the shelf by a loading/unloading device.

An example of the loading/unloading device is the structure shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1750/1983 or Publication No. 1751/1984.

For example, the device shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1750/1983 includes a storage shelf configured in a matrix and a container transfer table movable vertically and horizontally in front of the storage shelf, and automatically transfers storage containers to the storage shelf. In the apparatus for loading and unloading, the container gripper is movable from one end of the conveyor table to the other in a direction toward or away from the storage shelf, and is provided on the container conveyor table and has a small size in the movable direction. a member, and a member provided on the container conveying table with the container gripping member in between.
a pair of container guide members, wherein the container gripping member includes a housing having a height lower than the upper surface of the container guide member, and an engagement member attached to the front and rear ends of the housing in the movable direction to obtain engagement with the container. The engaging member is movable between a higher position and a lower position than the upper surface of the container guide member.

Furthermore, as a delivery device for pallets or trays constituting the above-mentioned automatic machine, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-206708
The publication includes a tray storage section for loading and unloading trays, a transfer device for loading and unloading trays into the tray storage section, and an elevating body, and the transfer device includes a hook body for hooking and holding the tray, and A configuration including a chain that allows the hook body to move freely in the horizontal direction is disclosed.

The pallet is pulled out from the stocker and each part inside the pallet is taken out by a robot.
At this time, it is necessary to position the pallet accurately. In other words, the container pull-out means shown in Utility Model Publication Nos. 54-1750 and 1988-1751, etc., has a structure in which a claw is engaged with an engagement plate of the container to pull out the container. may be displaced, leading to a failure in the robot's operation to take out articles from the container. Particularly when the amount of articles stored in the container is large, the articles are small, or the grasping position of the robot hand is limited, it is necessary to maintain highly accurate alignment of the drawer position of the articles. As shown in FIG. 6, the pallet 102 is pulled out from the stocker 101 by engaging the hook provided on the collar of the pallet 102, and then being pressed in the direction of the arrow X in the figure by a spring, cylinder, etc. stop 102
Stop at the position where it touches 3. And after that
The pallet 102 was pressed in the direction of the arrow Y by a similar spring, cylinder, etc., and stopped at the position where the pallet 102 came into contact with the stopper 104.

In this way, when pulling out a pallet, three operations are performed: pulling out the pallet, positioning it in the X direction, and positioning it in the Y direction.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, when pulling out and positioning a pallet with the above-described configuration, three operations are always required, making it difficult to speed up the pallet pulling operation.

In addition, in addition to the pallet pulling means, means for pressing the pallets in the X and Y directions must be provided, resulting in a problem that the structure of the apparatus becomes complicated and the cost increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a pallet positioning device that can solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and accurately maintain the positions of articles or storage containers to be loaded and unloaded.

Furthermore, when assembling precision parts, it is necessary to accurately grasp the object with a robot hand, and it is also required to transport the storage container without causing vibrations, etc. Therefore, the second object of the present invention is to To provide a pallet positioning device which automatically positions an article according to the engagement of an engaging member in a loading/unloading device with an article or a container and a drawer selection operation of a container, and which eliminates an operating means for positioning. There is a particular thing.

[Means for solving problems]

To this end, the present invention includes guides placed on both sides of the pallet movement path, a stopper placed at one end of the movement path, and engaging members that engage with engaging portions provided on both sides of the pallet. means for engaging the engaging member with the engaging portion of the pallet; and an engaging force of one of the engaging means is greater than the engaging force of the other means to cause the pallet to be attached to one of the guides. The present invention is characterized by comprising means for bringing the pallet into pressure contact, and means for keeping the pallet in pressure contact and bringing the pallet into contact with the stopper.

[Effect]

According to the above configuration, it is possible to perform pallet positioning simultaneously with the pallet pulling operation.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an apparatus to which an embodiment of the pallet positioning apparatus of the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1 shows the entire pallet positioning device, and 2 is a stocker. In the stocker 2, a plurality of pallets are stored on each shelf. The pallet positioning device 1 moves the hooks 7 and 7' in the direction of arrow B' in the figure to approach the pallet stored in the stocker 2, and moves the hooks 7 and 7' to the hanging portions of the pallet in the direction of arrow A and in the figure, respectively. Move it in the A′ direction and latch it. Thereafter, the pallet is pulled out by moving the hooks 7 and 7' in the direction of arrow B in the figure.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top view and a side view, respectively, showing details of a portion of the pallet positioning device; each element except the drive system is arranged symmetrically in each figure, so only one side is shown.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, 3 is the main body of the pallet positioning device, and 4 and 4' are pallet guides provided vertically on the main body 3. Reference numeral 5 indicates a pallet, the collar of which is placed on pallet guides 4 and 4'. Notches 6 and 6' are provided at the ends of the pallet 5, and there are four cutouts 6 and 6' in total, two on each side of the pallet 5. 7 and 7' are notches 6
and 6', and the notch 6 and the hook 7 and the notch 6' and the hook 7' are respectively closely engaged. 8 and 8' are LM guides that support the hooks 7 and 7' movably in the directions of arrows A and A' in the figure, and 9 and 9' are respectively connected to the hooks 7 and 7' via the LM guides 8 and 8'. It is a holding member that holds.

Cylinders 10 and 10' are provided on the holding members 9 and 9', respectively, and move the hooks 7 and 7' in the directions of arrows A and A' in the figure.
11 and 11' are LM guides that respectively support holding members 9 and 9' movably in the directions of arrows B and B' in the figure; 12 and 12' are LM guides, respectively;
This is a holding stand that holds the holding members 9 and 9' via guides 11 and 11', and the holding stands 12 and 12' are mounted 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, 16 is a timing belt, and pulley 14
and pulley 15. Drive pulleys 17 and 17' are provided coaxially with pulley 15, and are engaged with holding members 9 and 9', respectively, via belts 20 and 20'.

With the above configuration, the rotational driving force of the motor 13 is transmitted to the pulley 17 and the pulley 17' connected to the pulley 17 by the shaft 17A, and thereby the hooks 7 and 7' are moved through the movement of the belts 20 and 20'. It moves in the directions of arrows B and B' in the figure.

Sensors 18a and 18b and 18a' and 18b' detect the engagement of the hooks 7 and 7' with the notches 6 and 6', and the avoidance of the hooks 7 and 7' from the notches 6 and 6', respectively. Further, 19 is an encoder that engages with the rotating shaft of the motor 13 and detects the movement of the timing belt 16. Further, 21 is a stopper for positioning the pallet 5 in the direction of arrow B in the figure. 2
2 and 22' connect the hooks 7 and 7' to the holding member 9.
and a guide allowing relative movement on 9';
23 and 23' are springs that suppress the movement.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a control system for the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 and a robot (not shown). In the figure, 30 is a central processing unit (CPU), which has a read-only memory (ROM) 31 and a random access memory (RAM) 32, and controls the operations of the pallet positioning device 1, stocker 2, and robot (not shown). Control.

The ROM 31 stores processing means related to control of the entire apparatus, such as processing procedures to be described later in FIG. Further, the RAM 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 drawer 1 constructed as described above will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The flowchart in Figure 5 shows the process from moving the stocker 2 up and down, pulling out the pallet 5 stored in the stocker 2, taking out the parts, storing the pallet 5 in the stocker 2, and moving the stocker 2 up and down again. shows.

Step S1: First, the stocker 2 is moved up and down by a signal from a robot (not shown).

Step S2: The vertical movement of the stocker 2 is stopped when the pallet 5 requested by the robot reaches the take-out position.

Step S3: Stoppage of the stocker 2 is detected by an encoder (not shown).

Step S4: After detecting the stop of the stocker 2, the hooks 7 and 7' are engaged with the notches 6 and 6' by the cylinders 10 and 10'. At this time, the hooks 7 and 7' are guided by the LM guides 8 and 8', respectively, and move in directions A and A' shown in FIG. At this time, the force with which the hook presses the pallet 5 is greater for the hook 7 than for the hook 7'. As a result, the pallet 5 is pressed against the pallet guide 4', and the pallet 5 is positioned in the direction AA' in FIG.

Step S5: The engagement of hooks 7 and 7' is detected by sensors 18a and 18a'.

Step S6: After detecting the engagement of hooks 7 and 7', motor 1
Rotate 3. The rotation of the motor 13 is controlled by a transmission pulley 14, a timing belt 16, a transmission pulley 15,
Holding member 9 via drive pulleys 17 and 17'
and 9'. As a result, the holding member 9
and 9' are guided by the LM guides 11 and 11' and moved in the direction of arrow B in FIG.
That is, the robot stops at a position where each component in the pallet 5 can be taken out by the robot. At this time, motor 1
The amount of rotation 3 is set to be greater than the amount by which the pallet 5 is expected to come into contact with the stopper 21. By doing so, the pallet 5 first comes into contact with the stopper 21.
Further rotation of the motor 13 causes the holding members 9 and 9' to advance in the direction of arrow B in FIG. As a result, the hooks 7 and 7' are pulled in the direction B by the force of the springs 23 and 23', thereby pressing the pallet 5 against the stopper 21 and positioning the pallet 5 in the direction BB'.

Step S7: Completion of drawing out the pallet 5 is detected by the encoder 19.

Step S8: After detecting the completion of drawing out the pallet 5, issue a command to the robot to pick the parts in the pallet.

Step S9: While the robot is picking up parts according to the above-mentioned pick command, the pallet drawing device is stopped at the above-mentioned position until a command to complete the picking is received from the robot.

Step S10: When a pick completion command is received from the robot, the motor 13 is rotated in the opposite direction to that in step S6 to move the pallet in the direction of arrow B' in FIG. 2 and store it in the stocker 2.

Step S11: Completion of storing the pallet 5 in the stocker 2 is detected by the encoder 19.

Step S12: After the above detection, move hooks 7 and 7' to cylinder 1.
0 and 10' in the directions of arrows A and A' in FIG. 3, respectively, to avoid engagement with the notches 6 and 6'.

Step S13: The above engagement is avoided by using the proximity sensors 18b and 18.
Detected by b′.

After completing step S13, return to step S1 again.
The above steps S1 to S13 are repeated.

In this embodiment, the pressing force by the hook 7 is made larger than the pressing force by the hook 7', but conversely, the pressing force by the hook 7' is
It is of course possible to position the pallet 5 by pressing it against the pallet guide 4 with a pressure greater than that of the pallet guide 4.

[Effect of idea]

As is clear from the above description, the present invention has two pressing means for pressing the pallet against the guide, and the engaging force of one means is made larger than the engaging force of the other means to press the pallet against the guide. By bringing them into contact with each other, it becomes easy to perform the pallet pull-out operation and the positioning operation accurately and at high speed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device to which the present invention is applied;
3 and 3 are a top view and a sectional view, respectively, showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control system shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an operating procedure of the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a conventional pallet positioning method. 1... Pallet positioning device, 2... Stocker, 3... Pallet positioning device main body, 4, 4'
...Palette guide, 5...Palette, 6,6'
...Notch, 7,7'...Hook, 8,8',1
1, 11'... LM guide, 9, 9'... Hook holding member, 10, 10'... Cylinder, 13... Motor, 14, 15... Transmission pulley, 16... Timing belt, 17, 17' ...Drive pulley, 1
8a, 18b, 18a', 18b'... Proximity sensor,
19... Encoder, 20... Belt, 21...
Stopper, 22, 22'...Guide, 23, 2
3'...Spring, 101...Stocka, 102...
Palette, 103, 104...Stoppa.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] Guides disposed on both sides of a pallet movement path; a stopper disposed at one end of the movement path;
an engaging member that engages with engaging portions provided on both sides of the pallet; means for engaging the engaging member with the engaging portion of the pallet; and an engaging force of one of the engaging means is equal to that of the other. A pallet positioning device comprising means for pressing the pallet against one of the guides with a force greater than the engaging force of the means, and means for maintaining the pressure contact of the pallet and bringing the pallet into contact with the stopper. .