JPH0366539A - Trans-port device for tool exchange device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To dispence with axial movement of the device by providing a pair of grasping bodies freely opening or closing so as to pinch the shank part of a tool holder on the index position from both sides of moving locus accompanied with indexing on a main body moving between the index position and the delivery position. CONSTITUTION:A tool holder 25 is positioned on an index position A between grasping bodies 70 opened by indexing, and a piston rod 60a is retreated to pinch the holder 25 with the upper and lower grasping bodies 70. Simultaneously a slidable shaft 41 is pushed to the left with the lock releasing cam 80 of the upper grasping body 70, and the flange 43 of the slidable shaft 41 is removed from the projecting piece of the grasping claw 33 of a magazine plate 31. Hereby, tool locking condition is released, and the grasping claw 33 is let in the condition of grasping the holder 25 only by spring force. Nextly, a swing arm 65 is turned by 180 deg., and the main body 52 of a transport device is brought down from the index position A up to a delivery position B, by action of a cam follower 66 and a guide member 61, pushing and spreading the grasping claws 33, in the condition of pinching the holder 25 between the grasping bodies 70.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a tool changer, and more specifically,
The present invention relates to a transfer device that is placed between a tool magazine and a tool exchange arm, takes out a tool indexed by the tool magazine, and transports it to a delivery position to the tool exchange arm.

Conventional technology Conventionally, there has been a transfer device for a tool changer as described above.

A swinging arm with a tool pot at the tip is moved in the axial direction to move the tool pot at a predetermined index position of the tool magazine, which holds a large number of tool holders with opening/closing claws radially. A tool that fits into the taper shank of the holder and swings the swing arm in the radial direction to position the tool holder at a predetermined delivery position (Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-32112)
and so on.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention According to the above, the swinging arm is moved in the axial direction with respect to the tool holder at the indexed position, and the tool pot at the tip of the swinging arm is fitted into the taper shank of the tool holder. Therefore, it is necessary to secure a certain stroke behind the tool holder for insertion and removal with the taper shank portion, and a space is required behind the tool holder. Therefore, there is a problem in that the operating space of the transfer device is large, which hinders miniaturization of the device.

Means for Solving the Problems Accordingly, the present invention provides a tool magazine that is located between a tool change arm and a tool magazine that releasably holds a number of tool holders loaded with tools through an annular holding groove in its flange. In a tool changer equipped with a transfer device that transfers a tool holder at a predetermined index position of a magazine to a delivery position where it is delivered to the tool change arm, a main body that moves between the index position and the delivery position is provided with a At the indexing position, a pair of grasping bodies are attached to the tool holder so as to be openable and closable so as to sandwich the tapered shank portion of the tool holder from both sides of the movement locus accompanying the indexing.

According to the above, when the gripping body is left in the open state at the indexed position and the tool magazine is indexed, the taper shank of the tool holder is located between the gripping bodies, and then the taper shank portion is positioned between the gripping bodies. Under this condition, the tool holder is taken from the tool magazine and moved to the delivery position. Thereafter, the tool exchange arm receives the tool holder at the delivery position and exchanges it with the tool holder on the spindle.

Embodiment In Fig. 1.2, a moving base 2 on a main body bed 1 is moved in the front and back (Z-axis) direction by a feed screw shaft 4 which is rotationally driven by a Z-axis circumferential motor 3 attached to the rear of the main body bed 1. That's how it is. A movable column 5 is mounted on the movable base 2 and is movable in the left-right (X-axis) direction by a feed screw shaft 7 which is rotationally driven by an X-axis circumferential motor 6 attached to the side of the movable base 2. Therefore, the moving column 5 will horizontally move back and forth and left and right. A spindle head 8 rotatably supporting a spindle 8a is mounted on the movable column 5 so as to be movable in the vertical (Y-axis) direction. This spindle head 8 is moved up and down by upper and lower feed screw shafts 9 in the moving column 5, and this feed screw 9 is connected to a Y-axis circumferential motor 10 and a timing belt 11 mounted on the moving column 5 with the output shaft facing upward. connected via.

Four columns 12 are attached to the main body bed 1 and extend above the top of the moving column 5, and a magazine support base 13 is fixed to the upper end of the columns, and is located above the horizontal movement space of the moving column 5. . An arm device 115 is integrally mounted on the lower surface of the magazine support base 13 between it and the top of the moving column 5. Arm device 1
5, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-282840, a tool changing arm 17 having grips 16 at both ends is rotated 90 degrees clockwise from the standby position shown in FIG. 1 by a combination of a plurality of cam elements. Delivery position 11B of the transfer device 50 described later
simultaneously grip the tool holder 25 of the spindle and the tool holder of the spindle (to which tools are attached), then move the tool exchange arm 17 in the axial direction to pull out both tool holders 25,
After turning 180 degrees, it moves backward in the axial direction to change the tool, and then turns 90 degrees counterclockwise to return to the original standby position.

A magazine base 20, which is a combination of four pillars 18 and a base plate 19, is fixed to the upper surface of the magazine support base 13.
A tool magazine 30 is mounted on the magazine base 20 so as to be indexable by a known Geneva mechanism (not shown) that is rotated by a motor. A magazine plate 31 that is rotated and indexed in this tool magazine 30 is provided with a tool holding section 32 that radially holds a large number of tool holders 25 holding tools. As shown in FIG. 4.6, this tool holding part 32 has two holding claws 33 that hold an annular holding groove 27 formed in the flange 26 of the tool holder 25.
4 and closed with a spring force of 35. As shown in FIG. 4, a sliding shaft 41 of a tool locking mechanism 40 is disposed between the opposing protrusions 36 of the holding claw 33 and is biased rearward, and a roller 42 is provided at the rear end of the sliding shaft 41. It is rotatably supported. This sliding shaft 41 is provided with a flange 43 at the middle part in the axial direction, and the flange 43 is normally positioned between the protrusions 36 by the force of a spring 44, and the gripping claw 33 holds the tool holder 25.
This prevents the gripping claws 33 from opening while the flange 43 is held, and when engaged with a lock release cam 80 (to be described later), the flange 43 moves forward and releases the locked state of the gripping claws 33.

A tool magazine 30 is disposed between the tool magazine 30 and the tool exchange arm 17 inside the magazine base 20.
A transfer device 50 is arranged to transfer the tool holder 25 at the indexed position (in this embodiment, the vertically downward position, the position A in FIG. 1) to the delivery position B where it is delivered to the tool exchange arm 17 vertically below the tool holder 25. .

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, in this transfer device 50, a pair of guide rails 51 are provided on the back side of the two front columns 18 that support the base plate 19 over almost the entire vertical length. They are installed so that they face each other in the vertical direction (in the figure). The main body 52 of the transfer device 50 is a sliding body 53
A cylinder portion 60 is integrally fixed to the back surface of this sliding body 53.
It consists of The entire sliding body 53 is box-shaped and has an open front.
A guide step portion 54 is formed and a gear support member 7, which will be described later, is formed.
A guide member 5 is integrally fixed to a core member 56 in which a pair of holes 55 for 7 are bored vertically, a closing body 57 that closes both left and right sides of the core member 56, and a protruding piece 58 that projects laterally from this closing body 57.
9. The guide members 59 are fitted onto the guide rails 51 so as to be vertically slidable. A cam follower 7 guide member 61 is fixed to one side of the cylinder portion 60. In the linear guide groove 62, a cam follower 66 at the tip of a swinging arm 65 connected to a rotating shaft of a rotary actuator 64 attached to a support plate 63 projecting rearward from the column (lower one in Fig. 5) can be freely moved. It is inset. Therefore, when the swing arm 65 is rotated 180 degrees between the vertically upper position and the vertically lower position shown in FIG. It will move in a straight line between B and the corresponding position.

Next, a presser plate 67 is attached to the front end surface of the core member 56,
The guide protrusions 71 of the pair of upper and lower grasping bodies 70 are fitted into the grooves formed between the presser plate 67 and the guide step 54 so as to be vertically slidable. The pair of upper and lower grasping bodies 70 are the tool holders 25
A tool pot with a fitting hole 72 into which the taper shank portion 28 of the tool pot can be fitted is divided into upper and lower halves on the center line, and with the tool holder 25 sandwiched between them, the pull stud of the tool holder 25 is opened. Steel ball 7 engaged with the front surface of 29
3 is provided with a pair of elastic holding mechanisms 75 which are urged inward in the radial direction by the force of a spring 74. Racks 76 are formed on the back surfaces of these grasping bodies 70, and these racks 76 each have gear support members 7 fitted into the holes 55 of the core member 56.
They are respectively meshed with a feed gear 78 which is rotatably supported by the gears 7 and 7. These feed gears 78 are engaged with opening/closing racks 79 formed above and below a piston rod 60a that protrudes from the cylinder portion 60 and moves back and forth, and the pair of upper and lower gripping bodies 70 are opened and closed by the back and forth movement of the piston rod 60a. The tapered shank portion 28 of the tool holder 25 is held between both sides thereof.

The degree of opening is especially indexed I! In A, the gripping bodies 70 are generally positioned on both sides of the movement trajectory drawn by the taper shank portion 28 of the tool holder 25 by indexing the tool holder 25. Furthermore, a lock release cam 80 is attached to the front upper part of the upper grasping body 70. Further, a stopper 81 that comes into contact with the lower part of the lower grasping body 70 and positions the main body 52 in the vertical direction at the delivery position B is fixed to the arm device 15, and is fixed to the arm device 15. ) 18 is the tool exchange arm 17 at the delivery position B.
The stopper 82 that comes into contact with the right side surface of the lower gripping body 70 is fixed in order to receive the impact caused by the rotation of the gripping body 70 . In this embodiment, the arm device 15 and the transfer device 50 constitute a tool exchange device, which is housed together with the tool magazine 30 within the width of the main body bed 1.

According to this overall configuration of the machining center, the tool is mounted together with the tool holder 25 on the main shaft 8a of the movable column 5 and machining is performed, but since the movable column 5 is not equipped with any tool changer, its own The weight is light and the height of the movable column 5 is low, so the center of gravity of the movable column 5 is lowered, allowing high-speed horizontal movement and shortening machining time. Furthermore, even if the shape of the workpiece is such that the part facing the tool change arm 17 protrudes toward the moving column 5, the spindle head 8 can slip under it.
It has good accessibility to the workpiece, and it is easy to process workpieces with complex shapes. Moreover, since there are no protruding parts on the left and right sides of the main body bed 1, and the overall shape is arranged within the width of the machine, by installing a machining center with this configuration in parallel to the flexible transfer line, an extremely short transfer pitch can be achieved. The workpiece can be machined with 1A, and the installation area of 1a is reduced.

Next, tool exchange will be explained. First, the pair of upper and lower grasping bodies 70 of the transfer device 50 are in the indexing position! l! At A, the movement locus of the taper shank part 28 is sandwiched between them so that the taper shank part 28 of the tool holder 25 can pass between them.
In this state, the tool magazine 30 is indexed, and the tool holder 2S holding a predetermined tool is placed in the indexed position I! It is indexed to A. By indexing to the index position 11A in this way, the tool holder 25 is positioned between the open grasping bodies 70.Then, the piston rod 60a of the cylinder section 60 retreats from the state shown in FIG. 4, and the opening/closing rack 79 , the upper and lower gripping bodies 70 approach each other via the feed gear 78 and the rack 76, and the indexed tool holder 25
Sandwich it from the top and bottom. At the same time, the elastic holding mechanism 7 of the grasping body 70
No. 5 rope ball 73 engages the front surface of pull stud 29. Although the tool holder 25 is held between the gripping bodies 70, there is a very small gap in the radial direction between the fitting hole 72 and the tapered shank part 28 with the gripping bodies 70 sandwiching the tapered shank part 28. Therefore, only the elastic holding mechanism 75 prevents the tool holder 25 from coming off in the axial direction. At the same time, the upper grasping body 70
The lock release cam 80 of the slide shaft 4 of the tool lock mechanism 40
1 to the left in FIG.
The tool holder 25 is gripped only by force.

Next, the rotary actuator 64 is actuated to move the swing arm 65 from the vertically upper position to the vertically lower position 1 as shown in FIG.
When the main body 52 of the transfer device 150 rotates 80 degrees, the cam follower 66 and the cam follower guide member 61 act to move the tool holder 25 between the gripping bodies 70 from the index position A to the unlocked gripping position. The claws 33 are pushed down against the force of the spring 35 while being expanded, and are brought into contact with the stopper 81 and moved to the delivery position B. By this time, the spindle head 8 of the moving column 5 is in the tool change position shown in FIG. Then, the tool exchange arm 17 rotates 90 @ clockwise from the standby position, and the gripping parts 16 at both ends grip the tool holder 25 in the delivery position 1i1B and the tool holder on the spindle 8a.Then, the tool exchange arm 17 rotates in the axial direction. It moves forward and extracts the tool holder 25 at the delivery position B held by the elastic holding mechanism 75 and the tool holder unclamped by the main shaft 8a, turns 180 degrees, and then retreats to replace the tool.

Then, the tool exchange arm 17 is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and returned to the standby position, and the grasping body 7 is in the transfer position B from the main shaft 8a.
The tool holder 25 attached to the position B! is moved to the index position B! by the operation of the rotary actuator 64. A, and the annular holding FR 27 is installed between the gripping claws 33 of the tool magazine 30. When the first gripping body 70 is opened by the advance of the piston rod 60a, the tool locking mechanism 40 acts to lock the returned tool holder 25 so that it does not separate from the magazine plate 31. The pair of gripping bodies 70 waits for the next tool indexing.

In this embodiment, the pair of upper and lower gripping bodies 70 have been described as holding the tool holder 25 with the elastic holding mechanism 75;
During the extraction operation using the tool exchange arm, the tool could be exchanged with the gripping body 70 closed, but the elastic holding mechanism was omitted and the gripping body gripping the tool holder was used, and the tool was attached to the tool exchange arm at the delivery position. The gripping body 9 may be slightly opened when the holder is held.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the device of the present invention, a pair of grasping bodies for grasping the taper shank portion of a tool holder with a tool mounted thereon from both sides can be positioned at the indexing position of the tool magazine and at the delivery position to the arm. These gripping bodies are attached to the main body that moves between the two, and in addition, at the indexing position, these gripping bodies can be positioned outside the plane across the trajectory accompanying the indexing of the taper shank part. When the tool magazine is left in an open state corresponding to the indexed position and the tool magazine is indexed, the taper shank part is positioned between the gripping bodies, and then the taper shank part is gripped and the tool holder is taken up from the tool magazine and transferred. Can be moved to any position.

When moving to the delivery position, axial movement of the transfer device can be eliminated. Therefore, a space for axial movement of the transfer device is not required behind the tapered shank portion, and the entire device can be made compact.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of the machining center, FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of the transfer device. FIG. 4 is a side view partially taken along the IV-IV cross section of the third rJ4. FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the tool holding portion of the tool magazine. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Body bed, 5...Moving column, 8...Spindle head, 13...Magazine support base, 15...
Arm device, 17... Tool exchange arm, 25... Tool holder, 26... Flange, 27... Annular holding groove, 28... Taper shank portion, 30... Tool magazine, 50...・Transfer device, 52...Main body, 70...
Grasping body, A...index position, B...delivery position

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A device for exchanging tools between a tool magazine which releasably holds a large number of tool holders in an annular holding groove of its flange and a spindle of a spindle head, the tool exchange arm and the tool magazine A tool changer is provided with a transfer device located between the index position and the transfer position for transferring a tool holder at a predetermined index position of the tool magazine to a transfer position where the tool holder is transferred to the tool exchange arm. The tool is characterized in that a pair of grasping bodies are attached to the main body which moves between the two, so as to be able to open and close the tapered shank part of the tool holder at the indexing position so as to sandwich the tapered shank part of the tool holder from both sides of the movement locus accompanying the indexing. Exchange device transfer device.