JPH0429424B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an automatic coating device that automatically coats various relatively simple-shaped objects to be coated, such as plates, while being transported.

(Prior Art) Various coating apparatuses have been proposed in the past that automatically coat a plurality of types of objects having different sizes and shapes while conveying them in a mixed manner using a conveying device. for example,
Data regarding the dimensions and shapes of each standardized object to be coated is input and stored in the control system in advance, and when the object to be coated is carried into the coating machine, the data regarding the object to be coated is read out and the object to be coated is read out based on that data. A device in which a painted object is coated is known (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-40286).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional method, the objects to be painted are painted according to the input data, so while it is possible to perform coating with high precision, on the other hand, the data regarding each object to be painted is Since the input data is stored in the control system in advance, a control system with a large storage capacity is required, resulting in a complicated device configuration.

Further, when painting an object to be painted, data that has been input in advance regarding the object to be painted is required, so it is not possible to temporarily paint an object to be painted without input data. To run it,
It is necessary to input data regarding the object to be coated into the control system by adjusting the order of other input data, and the correction is troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to collect data regarding the dimensions and shape of the object to be coated in a predetermined manner on the conveyance path before the object is carried into the coating machine. A detector automatically detects the structure based on the reference, and during coating, the coating machine is moved based on the detected data to control the coating distance between the coating gun and the object to be coated to be approximately constant. By this means, it is possible to automatically coat objects having different sizes and shapes at random even with a simple device configuration.

(Means for solving the problem) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the solving means of the present invention, as shown in FIG.
A pitch feed detector 3 detects the pitch feed of the conveying device 1 which is intermittently conveyed at a predetermined feed pitch along the
will be established. Further, the light emitting section 6 and the light receiving section 7, which are opposite to each other between the upper and lower sides and the left and right sides surrounding the object to be coated W to be transported in a plane orthogonal to the transport direction of the transport device 1, are arranged so as to face each other and equally in the left and right and up and down directions. A plurality of sets are arranged at a pitch interval d, and the object data detection detects data regarding the size and shape of the object W by blocking the incident light from each light emitting section 6 to the corresponding light receiving section 7 by the object W. A container 4 is provided. on the other hand,
A coating machine 1 has a vertically movable coating gun 9 on the side of the conveyance path 2 at a predetermined distance l ₁ , l ₂ away from the object data detector 4 in the conveyance direction (rightward in the figure).
a plurality of paint machine movement amount detectors 13, which are arranged so as to be able to reciprocate back and forth;
13, . . . are arranged at a mounting pitch d equivalent to the mounting pitch d of the light emitting portions 6, 6, . . . and the light receiving portions 7, 7, . Further, each output of the pitch feed detector 3, the object data detector 4, and the coating machine movement amount detector 13, 13, . . . is received, and the detected data of the object data detector 4 is shown in FIG. When the object W to be coated reaches the coating machine 10, the corresponding detection data and the output data of the coating machine movement amount detectors 13, 13, . . . are stored. Based on the comparison, the coating machine 10 is moved back and forth in pitches so that the coating distance L between the coating gun 9 and the object W to be coated is approximately constant, and the painting gun 9 is moved to the height dimension of the object W to be coated. The configuration includes a control device 14 that controls the movement up and down accordingly.

(Function) With the above configuration, in the present invention, the object to be painted W transported along the transport path 2 of the transport device 1 is connected to a plurality of sets of light emitting units 6 that face each other between the upper and lower sides and the left and right sides of the painted object data detector 4. , 6,... and light receiving sections 7, 7,...
When passing between the upper and lower parts, it is determined whether or not the incident light from each light emitting part 6 to the light receiving part 7 is blocked by the object W to be coated each time the conveying device 1 is sent pitchwise. ,... and the light-receiving parts 7, 7,... control the thickness of the object W to be coated, and the light-emitting sections 6, 6, ... and the light-receiving sections 7, 7, ..., which face each other between the left and right sides, control the height of the object W. Each object W to be coated is divided into parts and detected by dividing the length by the feed pitch. Further, after blocking the incident light to the light receiving section 7 for a predetermined set of the light emitting section 6 and the light receiving section 7 which face each other between the upper and lower sides or between the left and right sides, the object to be coated W
The length of the object W to be coated is detected by counting the number of pitches until the incident light is recovered again by the passage of the object W. These detection data are stored in the control device 14 while being sequentially shifted every pitch feed of the conveying device 1.

Thereafter, when the workpiece W that has passed through the workpiece data detector 4 reaches the position of the coating machine 10 by pitch feeding of the conveying device 1 a certain number of times, the workpiece W that has passed through the workpiece data detector 4 reaches the position of the coating machine 10. The coating machine 10 is kept in an operating state for the number of times of feeding, and in this state, each of the data regarding the thickness of the object W to be coated stored in the control device 14 is detected by the coating machine movement amount detectors 13 and 1.
3, ..., and the paint sprayer 10 is moved back and forth in pitch until the paint sprayer movement amount detector 13 corresponding to the data outputs a detection signal. The coating distance L between the gun 9 and the object W to be coated is always kept substantially constant despite changes in the thickness of the object W in the transport direction. At the same time, the painting gun 9 is reciprocated up and down in accordance with the data regarding the height of the object W to be painted stored in the control device 14, and the painting gun 9 is moved back and forth according to the data regarding the height of the object W to be painted stored in the control device 14. 9 and the object W to be painted is maintained.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an automatic coating apparatus according to the present invention, in which 1 is used to hold a substantially plate-shaped object W to be coated, such as a top plate or side plate of an air conditioner case, between a pair of hangers 1.
It is a chain conveyor for intermittently conveying rightward in the figure at a predetermined feed pitch along a conveyance path 2 by being suspended and supported by a and 1a, and the pitch feed of the conveyor 1 is provided on the side of the conveyor 1. A pitch feed detector 3 for detection is provided.

Reference numeral 4 denotes an object data detector for detecting data regarding the size and shape of each object W conveyed by the conveyor 1; A rectangular frame 5 is provided in orthogonal planes so as to be movable through the conveyor 1 and the objects W to be coated transported by the conveyor 1. On the inner circumferential surface of the frame 5, that is, between the top and bottom and left and right sides surrounding each object to be coated W to be transported, there are a light emitting section 6 made of a light emitting tube, light emitting diode, etc. and a light receiving section made of a phototube, phototransistor, etc., which are opposed to each other. 7 are mounted facing each other at equal pitch intervals d in the horizontal and vertical directions, and the incident light from each light emitting section 6 to the corresponding light receiving section 7 is blocked by the object W to be coated. The light receiving section 7 is identified, and the light emitting sections 6, 6, . . . facing each other between the upper and lower sides are identified.
and the light-receiving parts 7, 7, .
6, ... and light receiving sections 7, 7, ... respectively detect the partial height dimension of the object W to be coated, and furthermore, a predetermined pair of light emitting section 6 and light receiving section 7 facing each other vertically or horizontally. The front and rear ends of the object W to be coated in the conveying direction are detected.

On the other hand, on the floors on the left and right sides of the conveyance path 2, which are located a predetermined distance l ₁ , l ₂ away from the object data detector 4 in the conveyance direction of the conveyor 1, there are installed floor panels extending in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance path 2, respectively. Rails 8, 8, .
0 is mounted on the conveyor path 2 so as to be able to reciprocate back and forth, and the coating gun 9 of the coating machine 10 moves from a position higher than the upper end of the workpiece W supported by the conveyor 1 to a position lower than the lower end thereof. It is provided so that it can move up and down within a predetermined range. The paint gun 9 is connected to a paint supply device 12 via a paint delivery hose 11, and although not shown, the paint supply device 12 controls the amount of paint supplied to the paint gun 9, that is, the amount of paint blown out from the paint gun 9. It has a built-in control valve that controls the amount of air in five stages, from a stopped state to a maximum amount of air.

Moreover, the rail 8 on which each of the above-mentioned painting machines 10 is mounted,
On the side of 8, there are a plurality of coating units including limit switches for detecting the amount of back and forth movement of the coating machine 10 with respect to the conveyance path 2, in other words, the coating distance L between the coating gun 9 and the object to be coated W on the conveyance path 2. Machine movement detector 1
3, 13, . . . are installed parallel to the moving direction of the coating machine 10 at equal pitch intervals d. The mounting pitch d of the coating machine movement amount detectors 13, 13, . . . is the mounting pitch d of the light emitting sections 6, 6, . . . and the light receiving sections 7, 7, . are set to the same dimensions.

Further, the pitch feed detector 3, the object data detector 4, and the coating machine movement amount detector 13,1
The outputs of 3, .

Then, this control device 14 transmits the detection data of the object data detector 4 to the pitch feed detector 3.
Each pitch feed of the conveyor 1 detected by is shifted and stored sequentially in a built-in register, and on the other hand, the number of pitch feeds between the front and rear ends of the workpiece W detected by the workpiece data detector 4 is counted. to detect the length dimension of the object W to be painted, and also to detect the distance from the object data detector 4 to each coating machine 10.
By counting the number of pitch feeds corresponding to l ₁ and l ₂ , it is determined that the object W to be coated has reached the coating machine 10,
When the object W to be coated reaches the coating machine 10, an activation signal is output to the control valve of the paint supply device 12 corresponding to the coating machine 10, and the paint is supplied from the coating gun 9 of the coating machine 10 to the height of the object W to be coated. The spray is controlled to increase or decrease in 5 steps so that the amount of spray increases as the size of the sprayer increases.
Based on the comparison with the outputs of 3, 13, . It is configured to move up and down according to the height dimension of the object W to be coated.

Next, the control operation in the above embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 4.

First, in the first step _S1 , the light emitting parts 6, which face each other between the upper and lower sides and the left and right sides of the object data detector 4,
6, . . . and the data detected by the light receiving sections 7, 7, . . . are read by the control device 14. That is, each light receiving section 7 determines whether or not the incident light incident from each light emitting section 6 of the detector 4 to the corresponding light receiving section 7 is blocked by the object W to be coated that is conveyed in pitch by the chain conveyor 1. carried out about
The light receiving section 7 whose incident light is blocked is detected. Thereafter, in step _S2 , it is determined whether the shift transfer switch is in the ON state, that is, whether or not the chain conveyor 1 is in the stopped state in the intermittent conveyance operation.If this determination is YES, step _S3 is performed. Then, from the light receiving parts 7, 7, ... in the vertical direction whose incident light was blocked by the object W to be coated, which were read in step _S1 , the distance from the light receiving parts 7, 7, ... in the left and right direction is farthest from the position directly below the chain conveyor 1. The two light-receiving parts 7, 7 at the same positions are selected, and the object to be coated W is selected depending on the position of both light-receiving parts 7, 7
The maximum value of the partial thickness dimension of is determined. At the same time, the two light receiving parts 7, 7 at the top and bottom are sorted out from the light receiving parts 7, 7, . 7, 7 determines the maximum value of the partial height dimension of the object W to be coated, and these dimension data are input into the first step of the register as shown in FIG. 5 in the control device 14 and stored. be done.

Then, in step _S4 , the control device 14
After all the dimensional data stored in the registers up to that point are shifted by _one step to the right in FIG. Pointer P (object data detector 4 and each coating machine 10)
The data for a total of 5 steps is read, which is the number of steps corresponding to the distances l ₁ and l ₂ divided by the feed pitch of the conveyor 1) and 2 steps before and after the pointer P, and then steps S ₆ to S ₈ and S ₉ , S ₁₀
Proceed to. Among the steps _S6 to _S8 , step _S6
Among the five steps of data read out in step _S5 , the maximum value M _H of the data regarding the height dimension of the object W to be coated (M _H =8,6 in the example of FIG. 5).
is retrieved, and in the next step _S7 it is determined whether there is data regarding the height dimension, that is, the maximum value of the data.
It is determined whether M _H =0. When there is no data, the control valve of each paint supply device 12 is closed and no paint is sprayed from the paint gun 9 of each paint sprayer 10, while when there is data, the control valve of each paint supply device 12 is closed, and when there is data, the control _valve is The opening degree of the control valve of the paint supply device 12 is adjusted, and the paint is sprayed from the paint gun 9 while controlling the spray amount V in five ways (for example, when the maximum value of the data
When M _H is M _H = 0, the paint blowout amount V is V = 0, 0<
When M _H ≦2.5, V=V ₁ ; when 2.5<M _H ≦5,5, V=V ₂ ; when 5.5<M _H ≦7.5, V=V ₃ ; when 7.5≦M _H , V=V ₄ . If set (0<V ₁ <
V ₂ <V ₃ <V ₄ ), and in the example of FIG. 5, V=V ₄ , V ₃ ). In the final step _S8 , the coating gun 9 is reciprocated up and down to the maximum value M _H of the data taken out in the step _S6 . Above steps S ₆ ~ S ₈
As shown in FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. When the paint gun 9 reaches the height of the workpiece W, the amount of vertical reciprocating movement of the painting gun 9 changes in accordance with the partial change in the height dimension of the object W to be painted. The amount will increase gradually. As a result, the paint can be efficiently blown out and supplied to the object W to be painted,
In addition to saving resources through effective use of paint,
It is possible to prevent uneven coating on the object W to be coated and improve the coating quality.

On the other hand, in the step _S9 , the maximum value _MW of the data regarding the width dimension of the object W to be painted ( _MW = 4 in the example of FIG. 5 _, 6) is taken out, and in the next step _S9 , its maximum value M _W is compared with the moving amount D of the paint sprayer 10 detected by one of the sprayer moving amount detectors 13, 13, . Based on the comparison, the paint sprayer 10 is moved back and forth in pitches until the amount of movement D corresponds to the maximum value M _W . That is, when M _W >D, the coating machine 10 moves backward away from the conveyance path 2, when M _W >D, it moves forward toward the conveyance path 2, and when M _W =D, it returns to that position. Stopped and held. the result,
As shown in FIG. 2, the coating gun 9 of the coating machine 10 maintains a constant coating distance L with respect to the object W to be painted, and moves back and forth with respect to the object W drawing a trajectory that enlarges its external shape. Therefore, interference between the coating gun 9 and the object W to be coated and uneven coating can be prevented.

At that time, the plurality of paint machine movement amount detectors 13,
The mounting pitch d of 13, ... is set to be the same as the mounting pitch d of the light emitting parts 6, 6, ... and the light receiving parts 7, 7, ... which face each other between the upper and lower sides of the workpiece data detector 4, and the workpiece data By comparing the detection data of the detector 4 and the detection data of the sprayer movement amount detectors 13, 13, . . . , the sprayer 10 is moved back and forth in pitch until the two match, so the movement control of the sprayer 10 is simplified. And it can be done reliably.

After the steps S ₈ and S ₁₀ , the first step S ₁
, and the subsequent steps S ₂ , S ₃ , . . . are repeated.

On the other hand, if the determination in step _S2 is NO, the process directly proceeds to steps _S8 and _S10 .

Therefore, in the embodiment described above, data regarding the size and shape of the object to be coated W transported by the chain conveyor 1 is transmitted to the light emitting sections 6, 6, ... and the light receiving sections 7,
7, ... is detected and stored in the data detector 4 of the painted object, and when the painted object W reaches each coating machine 10, based on the detection data, the amount of movement of the coating machine 10 and its coating gun 9, and Since the amount of paint sprayed is controlled, even if objects W to be painted with various sizes and shapes are mixed and conveyed at random, the sizes and shapes of each object can be reliably identified and painted accurately. With a simple device configuration, it is possible to automatically paint objects of different sizes and shapes.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, data regarding the dimensions and shape of the object to be coated is obtained by arranging a plurality of pairs of light emitting parts and light receiving parts facing each other between the upper and lower sides and between the left and right sides. A detector detects every pitch feed of the conveyance device, and the control device sequentially shifts and memorizes the information.Afterwards, when the object to be coated moves to a position of the atomizer far away in the conveyance direction, based on the stored data,
The coating distance between the coating gun and the object is determined by moving the coating machine back and forth relative to the object to be coated by pitches corresponding to the mounting pitches of the light emitting section and the light receiving section facing the upper and lower surfaces of the detector. By keeping the painting gun at a nearly constant level and moving it up and down according to the height of the object to be coated, even with a simple device configuration, objects of different sizes and shapes can be painted randomly and uniformly. It can be painted automatically in any condition.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of the coating device, FIG. A front view, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the control operation of the control device, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of data sequentially stored in the register of the control device. 1... Chain conveyor, 2... Conveyance path, 3...
... Pitch feed detector, 4 ... Painted object data detector, 6 ... Light emitting section, 7 ... Light receiving section, 9 ... Painting gun, 10 ... Painting machine, 12 ... Paint supply device, 1
3... Painter movement amount detector, 14... Control device,
W...Object to be painted.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A conveying device 1 that intermittently conveys a workpiece W to be coated at a predetermined feed pitch along a conveying path 2;
a pitch feed detector 3 for detecting the pitch feed of;
The light-emitting section 6 and the light-receiving section 7, which are opposed to each other between the upper and lower sides and the left and right sides surrounding the painted equipment W to be conveyed in a plane orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance device 1, are arranged at equal pitch intervals in the left-right and up-down directions. A plurality of sets are arranged in d, and the object W to be painted blocks the incident light from each light emitting section 6 to the corresponding light receiving section 7 by the object W to be painted.
A workpiece data detector 4 that detects data regarding the size and shape of the workpiece, and a workpiece data detector 4 that moves back and forth to the side of the transport path 2 at a predetermined distance l ₁ , l ₂ away from the workpiece data detector 4 in the transport direction. A coating machine 10 having a paint gun 9 which is movable up and down, and light emitting parts 6, 6, ... and light receiving parts 7, 7, ... mounting that face each other between the upper and lower sides of the data detector 4 for the object to be painted. A plurality of paint machine movement amount detectors 13, 13, . . . are arranged at a mounting pitch d equivalent to the pitch d and detect the back and forth movement amount of the paint sprayer 10, the pitch feed detector 3, and data on the object to be painted. Receives each output from the detector 4 and the coating machine movement amount detectors 13, 13, . When W reaches the coating machine 10, the coating distance between the coating gun 9 and the object W to be coated is determined by the coating machine 10 based on the comparison between the corresponding detection data and the outputs of the coating movement amount detectors 13, 13, . An automatic painting apparatus characterized by comprising a control device 14 that moves the painting gun 9 vertically in accordance with the height dimension of the object W to be painted, while moving the painting gun 9 back and forth in pitches so that L is approximately constant.