JPH0480772B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a parts assembling device used, for example, on an automobile assembly line, and in particular to a part assembling device that uses a visual sensor to align the part to be assembled with respect to the part to be assembled. The present invention relates to a component assembly apparatus configured to perform the assembly process.

(Prior art) In recent years, automation of various operations has been promoted in automobile manufacturing plants, but this mainly focuses on welding lines and painting lines for car bodies. The reality is that automation has not yet been fully automated due to the difficulty of aligning the parts (components) and the assembled parts. To deal with this, for example, as shown in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 58-169987, a television camera is used to align the parts to be assembled and the parts to be assembled. It is conceivable to enable automation of That is, an assembly position detection station for detecting the assembly position of the part on the car body is installed upstream of an assembly station that assembles the parts to the car body that is sent by tact, and the station detects the parts of the car body using a television camera. The assembly position is detected, and the positions of the assembly parts and fasteners set on the assembly station are adjusted in accordance with the detected position. According to this method, when the car body is transported to the assembly station, the positions of the car body, parts, and fasteners match, and therefore the fasteners automatically attach the parts to the car body. It becomes possible to assemble.

However, in the case where a nut is welded in advance at the part assembly position, the detection of the part assembly position of the vehicle body by the above-mentioned television camera is based on the brightness of the screw hole of this nut and the area around the screw hole. This is done by the television camera recognizing the difference between the two. In other words, the position of the screw hole is detected based on the difference in brightness between the screw hole that is in the shadow and the area around the screw hole that is exposed to light. In such cases, the above-mentioned difference in brightness is small, and therefore it may be difficult to recognize this difference with a television camera. When such a situation occurs, the parts assembly position on the vehicle body cannot be detected accurately, resulting in an error in position adjustment of the parts set on the assembly station.
This may lead to problems such as mistakes in assembling the parts and the vehicle body during assembly work. In addition, to prevent this kind of situation, you can use a highly sensitive television camera that can distinguish even small differences in brightness.
In this case, the cost is high and problems arise as the camera becomes larger.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention is intended to deal with the above-mentioned problems regarding parts assembling devices installed in automobile assembly lines, etc., particularly regarding parts assembling devices using visual sensors such as television cameras. It is an object of the present invention to accurately and reliably detect a component assembly position provided on a component to be assembled, such as a vehicle body, without using a highly sensitive visual sensor.

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized by the following structure.

In other words, in a parts assembly device that detects a part assembly position on a part to be assembled, such as a car body, and adjusts the position of the part to be assembled according to this assembly position, the transport direction of the part to be assembled is a coating device that applies paint to the assembly position so that the shape of the component assembly position on the assembled part is clear, and an assembly position that is coated with paint by the coating device. and an assembly unit that supports the assembly component and has a fastener for assembling the component to the assembly target component and whose position can be adjusted; A control device is provided for adjusting the position of the assembly unit according to the assembly position of the assembled part.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the above configuration, prior to the work of detecting the part assembly position in the part to be assembled using the visual sensor, paint is applied to the part assembly position to contrast the position with respect to the surrounding area. Since the image is clearly displayed, the assembly position can be accurately and reliably detected without using a particularly sensitive visual sensor, that is, by using an inexpensive visual sensor. As a result, the assembly unit that supports the assembly parts and has the fasteners is always correctly positioned, and the assembly parts and fasteners are always aligned with the assembled parts with high precision. Assembling errors between the assembly component and the component to be assembled are thereby prevented.

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

This embodiment relates to a case where the parts assembling apparatus according to the present invention is applied to an automobile assembly line, particularly to a process of assembling an engine and a suspension to a body.

As shown in Fig. 1, the automobile assembly line 1 is
Body A, which has a painting station 2, a position detection station 3, and an assembly station 4 from the upstream side, is suspended on a power and free conveyor 5. It is now possible to carry out takt transport in sequence.

The assembly station 4 includes a first transfer device 8 that supplies the rear suspension 6 to a first assembly unit 7, and a front assembly 9 consisting of a front suspension 9a, an engine 9b, etc. to a second assembly unit 10. It has a second transfer device 11 for supplying. The first transfer device 8 includes two upper and lower roller conveyors 12 and 13 and a lifting conveyor 1 provided at the ends of these conveyors 12 and 13.
4 and an upper roller conveyor 1.
2, the transfer plate 15 and the rear suspension 6 placed on the plate 15 are
Similarly, in the second transfer device 11, the transfer plate 16 and the front assembly 9 placed on the plate 16 are supplied to the assembly unit 7. It is designed to be supplied to the attached unit 10.

Further, the first assembly unit 7 has a floor 17
It has a fixing member 18 fixed to the fixing member 18, an intermediate member 19 provided on the fixing member 18, and an assembly stand 21 provided on the intermediate member 19 and having bolt runners 20 attached to both sides. The intermediate member 19 is fitted into the fixed member 18, and is movable by a motor 22 attached to the fixed member 18 in the x direction, that is, in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the body A is conveyed in a tact, The assembly table 21 is fitted to the intermediate member 19 and driven by a motor 23 attached to the intermediate member 19 in the y direction.
In other words, the body A is movable in the direction of tact conveyance, and the assembly table 21 is moved by x,
It is possible to move in the y2 direction. Similarly, the second assembly unit 10 also includes a fixing member 24,
An intermediate member 25 and bolt runners 26, 2 on both sides.
6 is attached to the assembly base 27, and two motors 28 and 29 move the assembly base 27 to x,
It is possible to move in the y2 direction.

Furthermore, a television camera 30 is installed on the position detection station 3 using a support member 31 so as to face the body A temporarily stopped on the station 3 from below, and is configured to take an image of a predetermined position on the lower surface of the body A. It's summery. As shown in FIG. 2, a position signal a is sent from this camera 30 to a control device 32, and from this control device 32 the first and second assembly units 7, 10 at the assembly station 4 are sent. Each motor 22, 23, 28,
A control signal b is sent to a drive device 33 that controls the drive unit 29.

Furthermore, the coating station 2 is equipped with a coating device 40 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. This coating device 40 includes an air cylinder 42 fixed to a support member 41, and a paint spray nozzle 43 held movably up and down by the cylinder 42.
and a tank 44 in which paint is stored,
The paint supplied from the tank 44 to the paint injection nozzle 43 via the paint supply hose 45 is sprayed from the tip of the nozzle 43 by air supplied via the air supply hose 46. There is. The paint spray nozzle 43 in this coating device 40 and the television camera 30 are connected to a predetermined parts assembly position B provided on the body A when the body A stops at the coating station 2 and the position detection station 3, respectively. It is located at the bottom.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained.

First, assembly station 4 of this assembly line 1
At this time, the rear suspension 6, which has been transferred together with the transfer plate 15 by the first transfer device 8, is set at a predetermined position on the assembly table 21 in the first assembly unit 7. Attachment stand 2
Each fastening part (bolt insertion hole) of the rear suspension 6 set on the rear suspension 1 is positioned precisely on the central axis of the bolt drive shaft 20a in the bolt runner 20. Further, the front assembly 9 transferred together with the transfer plate 16 by the second transfer device 11 is similarly set on the assembly table 27 in the second assembly unit 10 with high accuracy. On the other hand, at the painting station 2 on the upstream side of the assembly station 4, paint is applied around a predetermined component assembly position B on the body A when the body A is temporarily stopped. Specifically, this coating operation is performed as follows. That is, when the body A is stopped at the painting station 2, the air cylinder 42 in the coating device 40 is operated to move the paint injection nozzle 43 upward, and the nozzle 43 is supplied from a compressor (not shown) via an air supply hose 46. Air is supplied to the nozzle 43, and the force of this air blows out the paint that is being supplied from the tank 44 through the hose 45 to the nozzle 43 upwards. In this case, the body A cannot be transported when the part assembly position B, that is, the position of the nut D welded to the floor panel A' is located approximately directly above the paint spray nozzle 43 as shown in FIG. Since the nozzle 43 is stopped, the paint sprayed upward from the nozzle 43 is applied to the lower surface of the welded nut D on the floor panel A'. At this time, as shown in Fig. 2, the paint is naturally not applied to the hole A'' of the floor panel A' that corresponds to the screw hole D' of the nut D, and the paint film E is formed only around the hole A''. Therefore, the difference in brightness between the hole A'' and the surrounding area becomes significant.

When the coating work is completed in this manner, the body A is tact-transported from the coating station 2 to the position detection station 3, where the television camera 30 detects the component assembly position B. In this case, in this assembly position B, the difference in brightness between the hole A'' of the floor panel A' corresponding to the screw hole D' of the nut D and its surrounding area is significant, so The assembly position B can be detected accurately and reliably without using a television camera.

Here, the detection of the assembly position B is specifically performed by measuring the amount of deviation of the assembly position B from the center of the imaging surface of the television camera 30 in the x direction and the y direction. be exposed. The amount of deviation in the x direction and the y direction becomes a position signal a, and the control device 3
2, and after predetermined processing is performed within the device 32, it is sent to the motor drive device 33 as a signal b, and further from this motor drive device 33, the above x
A drive signal indicating the rotational direction and rotational angle of the motor according to the amount of deviation in the direction and the y-direction is transmitted to each motor 22, 23, 28, 29 in the first and second assembly units 7, 10 shown in FIG. are output respectively. As a result, the assembly bases 21 and 27 in the first and second assembly units 7 and 10 are attached to the rear suspension 6, front assembly 9 and bolt runners 20 and 2, respectively.
6 will be moved in the x and y directions by an amount corresponding to the amount of deviation of the component assembly position B in the x and y directions. Therefore, when the body A is conveyed to the assembly station 4 and stopped, the assembly position B (floor panel
The position of the nut D welded to A'), the corresponding fastening part of the assembly part (in the illustrated example, the bolt insertion hole C of the cross member in the front assembly 9), and the bolt drive shaft 26a of the bolt runner 26. It will match. At this time, all the other fastening parts in the front assembly 9 and the fastening parts of the rear suspension 6 and the corresponding fastening parts on the body A side all match. Therefore, each bolt runner 2
All the corresponding fastening parts between the front assembly 9 and the rear suspension 6 and the body A are located on the center axis of the bolt drive shafts 0, 26, 26, and each bolt runner 20, 26, 26 The work of fastening the front assembly 9 and the rear suspension 6 to the body A can be performed satisfactorily and reliably.

In this way, in this assembly line 1, prior to the assembly work at the assembly station 4, the coating work is performed so as to increase the difference in brightness between the predetermined parts assembly position and the surrounding area on the body A. Since the assembly position is detected after that, the position can be detected accurately and reliably, and as a result, mistakes in assembling parts to the body A can be prevented.

Note that the application of the paint to the parts assembly position on the body is not limited to spraying using the paint spray nozzle 43 as described above, but may be performed by smearing, stamping, or the like. Further, if a bolt is provided protruding from the assembly position of the body, paint will be applied to the tip end surface of the bolt.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an automobile assembly line to which the parts assembling apparatus according to the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show assembly positions on the line. It is a side view which shows a detection process and a coating process, respectively. A...Parts to be assembled (body), B...Parts assembly position,
6, 9... Assembly parts (rear suspension, front assembly), 7, 10... Assembly unit, 30... Visual sensor (TV camera), 40... Coating device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Detect the part assembly position in the part to be assembled,
A parts assembling device that adjusts the position of the parts to be assembled in accordance with the assembly position, the part assembling device adjusting the position of the part to be assembled in accordance with the assembly position, the shape of the part assembly position in the part to be assembled being adjusted along the conveyance direction of the parts to be assembled. a coating device that applies paint to the part assembly position so that the paint is clearly applied to the part assembly position, a visual sensor that detects the part assembly position of the assembled part to which the paint has been applied by the application device, and the assembly part. An assembly unit that supports the component and has a fastener for assembling the component to the component to be assembled and whose position can be adjusted is arranged, and the component assembly in the component to be assembled detected by a visual sensor is disposed. A parts assembling device characterized in that a control device is provided for adjusting the position of the assembling unit according to the mounting position.